


The Howl

by tiny_maus_boots



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Supernatural Staubrey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:46:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 50,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21982390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiny_maus_boots/pseuds/tiny_maus_boots
Summary: Stacie's pack is forcing her into a corner but Fate has other plans for her - if she doesn't die first.
Relationships: Stacie Conrad/Aubrey Posen
Comments: 224
Kudos: 156





	1. Chapter 1 - Stacie

Now with [mood board ](https://ww84.tumblr.com/post/636988764771811328/her-pack-had-been-right-eventually-her-wolf)by [kate](https://ww84.tumblr.com/).

* * *

The wind shifted to the east in a soft gust and Stacie raised her head and glanced around. Nothing looked out of place in her garage but something felt off. She carefully placed her ratchet on workbench as she passed it and pulled on the long chain to raise the door to the bay. The street was dead and snowy, far too cold out for even the hearty folk of Gustavus who were well used to the hard Alaskan winters. To call it a city was a huge overstatement, there were roughly 450 people all told and out of those…fifty belonged to her.

She knew everyone and everything in this small town surrounded by miles of wild forest that she still had yet to discover all the secrets of. Her nose flared delicately as she tipped her head to the wind and sniffed. Distress. It colored the air with its scent and she brought her head around to follow the trail. The wind kicked up with a forceful push, blowing back her hair and billowing the light weight button up flannel she wore. It didn’t bother her, her body was heat enough to keep her warm through much colder.

The faintest crunch of snow stopped her half way around the side of her garage. She knew who it was before she even saw his shadow. Knew he was just on the other side of the heavy duty snow plow stored there for the next day’s run. Stacie shook her head and sighed, the distress she’d sensed suddenly clear.

“Wade? Come on out of there…”

He was small, not just short but thin and reedy. Wade’s glasses glinted in the sun and he shuffled forward with his shoulders hunched and his head dipped low. He trembled slightly but that was more from anxiety than from the cold of kneeling in the snow to hide. She looked around but Stacie knew they were alone in what amounted to an alley between buildings.

“Stacie…I…” Wade pulled his hat off and worried it between his fragile looking hands. She knew if he wanted to he could easily bend the thick steel plow he was half hiding behind but that just wasn’t Wade’s way. He was too gentle hearted, too timid…too submissive to ever do that. The man ducked his balding head again, his eyes drifting away from her every few seconds as he worked himself up trying to speak. “I didn’t want it to be this way. Not all of us agree. I just…I’m not strong Stace…I can’t…”

“Wade, what are you…”

She stopped speaking then, a low warning growl trickling out from between her lips. Wade instinctively dropped down to his knees before the roll of power she pushed out but he wasn’t the one she was warning. Stacie threw her shoulders back when the figures drifted around from the back of the garage, not many, not her whole pack of course. They wouldn’t want to appear to be making a challenge, but enough, 6 or more, to make a point.

The leader was a heavyset man with a crooked nose and square jaw. He nodded once at Stacie and narrowed his eyes at Wade who cowered just a little more with a soft whine at the attention. His lip curled in a promise of pain and Stacie stepped directly between him and the frightened man he was threatening. Angus sniffed once but took a step back, his features relaxing immediately as he recognized her rank over him.

“You have something to say Angus?”

It was lightly phrased but the other man shook his head before dropping to a knee. None of the others followed suit but she didn’t expect them to. She didn’t expect him to either in all honesty but she didn’t hate the sign of obedience. One of the others pushed forward less aggressively but just as sure in her stance as Stacie was. Cynthia Rose dipped her head respectfully then glanced back at the group assembled. Her dark eyes warmed slightly when she turned back to her Alpha but her shoulders were heavy with worry and Stacie wondered if this would be the day. The day the pack decided they wanted a new leader, a new Alpha to protect and guide them.

She might be happy about that if it weren’t for wolves like Wade and a handful of others that couldn’t protect themselves. Those were the ones she stayed for, the ones she reluctantly took the mantle of Alpha for. Those and the innocent humans that would be preyed on if she didn’t insist that her pack rove in constant patrol around Gustavus. There were other things besides the occasionally furry that roamed the wilderness. Things better left to the cold dark depths and well away from the bright warmth of human life. They hadn’t always agreed with her, but the pack had always obeyed her and all of their lives had been better off for it.

But things were changing and Stacie wasn’t so sure the pack would keep obeying. Cynthia Rose shifted her weight on her feet uncomfortable then cleared her throat.

“We need to talk.”

“So talk. You know I’m always listening.” She cocked her head to one side, eyeing the other woman. “Unless this is the kind of talk is really an ultimatum. Because if that’s the case I have a truck in there to get back to.”

“The pack voted, they plan to tell you tonight. You have to pick a mate or come the blood moon…” She knew, the rest didn’t need to be said. Even as strong as she was, as in control of wolf as she was the draw of the blood moon was strong. If she didn’t have a mate chosen then nature would take its course and her wolf would choose for her. And then she’d be stuck for the rest of her life with the same person bearing God knew how many pups… it didn’t appeal to her in the least. But it appealed to the pack, they felt safer knowing there would be a legacy in the event that something happened to her. “Look it ain’t us right? You’re the Alpha and this is your pack but we’re outvoted.”

The weight of her situation was crushing and she turned on heel to stalk away. Wade cowered away from her afraid to be kicked out of the way. It wasn’t something she had ever done but others had, others would. So she had a choice that wasn’t really much of a choice. Stacie left them there outside and headed into the interior of her shop. It was darker there, quiet just not quiet enough inside her own head.

It was too human and far too much of a reminder that she was not. Stacie yanked the chain to the bay, closing it quickly. Her temper got the better of her and she pulled hard ripping the pulley right off the mechanism. It clattered down and she kicked it across the room where it crashed against the wall. The snarl rose in her chest and clawed its way up her throat, bursting past her lips in an angered roar that shook the bay doors.

It wasn’t smart. Even in a small backwater town in the middle of nowhere in the Alaskan wild people would start to ask questions. They would put pieces together and eventually her pack would be exposed. Even now with them forcing her hand and backing her into a corner she didn’t want to be in she couldn’t imagine harming them that way. At the end of the day they were still hers and she had to protect them. Even if it cost her the only real thing she had, her own free will.

The walls seemed to grow tight around her and Stacie felt her chest rising too quickly in gasping breaths. Her wolf wanted out and she was beyond trying to fight it. The wolf in her wanted to run and she wanted to run with it. Muscles rippled and bones broke, shifting and pulling as her body doubled over. It was always harder to force the shift outside of the moon but she didn’t have to force it this time. It came in a hot prickling rush of power and rage, Stacie twisted as her face twitched and rolled, hands clawing the concrete with deep furrows and then she was free.

Her heavily furred body leapt forward and bounded up on the desk in the corner, another leap and she was through the half open window, her broad shoulders pushing it wider as she scrambled through. The hard packed ice and snow came up quickly as she landed, back legs digging in as she reared back and pushed off heading for the only place even more solitary than her sleepy little shop in the middle of a sleepy little town.

Nothing bothered her as she ran, not even the birds sang out a greeting as she pushed herself faster and faster, deeper into the heart of the forest. She could run forever like this, pushing her way through drifts and over the swells of boulders. Maybe she could stay this way forever and run so far even the pack wouldn’t dare follow. But she’d done that once already, and running away wouldn’t help her people survive. So it was them or her and she had to choose. It was unfair and the wolf in her sped forward trying to outrun the crushing decision behind her. She ran until her legs couldn’t carry her and her body dropped heavily into the snow.

The dark canopy above her darkened as the sun dropped suddenly below the horizon. The pack would be shifting now, drawn to their clearing in the woods. They’d expect her there, sure that she would accept their ultimatum. And maybe she should. Maybe she should pick someone strong, someone fierce. Someone that could match her considerable power to make them more than just a pack of stray wolves trying to make a home among humans.

Stacie’s long tongue lolled out as she panted. Her pale green eyes rolled up to stare up at the perfect roundness of the moon slowly rising above the tree line. She could fight its pull but the sight of it pulled the breath from her lungs and she gave a soft whine. If only she could break free from the pack as easily as she broke the moon’s hold on her. She inhaled deeply in a shuddering sigh, never realizing it might be her last. Darkness was on her between one blink and the next and her only thought was…it was going to be a stupid death.


	2. Chapter 2 - Aubrey

It had been a long three days tracking but she had finally picked up the trail again. The revenant had moved even further to the heart of the forest than she had imagined, the deathly silence the only sign of its presence. No living thing stirred for several miles in any direction, either from fear or death all the animals had gone from this place. The sun shifted in its slow decline and broke through the thick cover of leaves and branches.

The light wasn’t close but she pulled her hood up none the less. She could only tolerate the sun for a short while unlike the others who tolerated it not at all, the gift of her mother’s dhampir blood. Just enough human to withstand it. Just barely. Still she would eventually burn and the flame would be all consuming, the pain…unimaginable. And then she would be no more, not this walking death just nothingness.

She simply didn’t have the time for all of that. The flicker of movement caught her attention and she tracked the loping path of a great furred wolf. It was large, perhaps one of the biggest she’d ever seen. It carved a path through the snow close to the line of trees before dipping into the shadowed thicket. The shadows to her left slid apart like a slick of oil. It was too fluid to be the shadow of a tree swaying in the wind. Too unnatural to be a living animal. Finally.

Revenants were filthy low creatures that could not be allowed to live. They were fortunately not a common occurrence but if even one were to be left unchecked it would contaminate the entire town of Gustavus in a matter of days, and once the town was drained the revenants would turn on vampires. They feared nothing, felt nothing and only desired one thing. To feed.

This was the fourth of its kind in the last two months and she had hoped to catch it and make it lead her to its maker. Whoever it was creating these _things_ they were either weak or ill and they had to be stopped. She sharpened her focus on the revenant as it melted from shadow to shadow before leaping on the wolf only seconds after the sun finally dropped. It was just dumb luck that the poor beast had wandered in to the copse of trees and revealed her prey.

The wolf yelped and struggled against the revenant but it couldn’t get away and it couldn’t do enough damage. It was just barely keeping the snapping jaws of the revenant from sinking teeth into it’s neck. A muscle in her cheek twitched and Aubrey dropped down out of the tree with barely a whisper of movement though it wouldn’t have mattered if she’d clattered out of the tree and fallen on her face in the dirt. The revenant wasn’t going to be distracted from the promise of hot, fresh blood in its grasp.

Aubrey reached out and bunched her hands in the disgusting tattered rag that was once a flannel shirt and yanked the creature back with enough force to toss it halfway across the clearing. The revenant gave a terrible keening yowl and she crouched in a defensive position with a hiss of warning. It hesitated for a second, just a blink of time really, but it was disarming and the creature lunged at her during that momentary surprise.

She tucked down tight and leapt at it’s chest, her weight staggering them both back to crash against an ancient spruce tree that shuddered with the impact. The revenant grappled with her, it’s arms locked around her waist to keep her close enough to bite. She brought both elbows down hard to the top of it’s head. It was as if it felt nothing, pausing its attempt to bite only long enough to spin them and pin her to the tree to keep from wiggling out of its grasp.

Aubrey just managed to get her forearm up in time before the thing reared its head back and blindly struck for a bite. It growled and yanked its head, worrying her arm like a dog with a bone. Fangs tore at her flesh and sinew, the crushing strength of the creature’s jaws shattering bone. They were a blur of motion and wild snarling hisses and it would just be so much easier if she could kill it. But she didn’t dare because she still needed the damned thing.

The revenant caught her along the ribs with a vicious rake of its claws and rage welled up in a cold rush from her chest. It didn’t feel like a bad wound which let her know it was likely more devastating than her mangled arm. She slashed out at the revenant’s face with her own clawed hand to blind it. The creature dropped her quickly and Aubrey rolled out of the way. Pain kept her from rising for long minutes but she eventually managed to get her feet under her. The revenant screamed in anger and brought its head around to focus on her, scenting her rather than actually seeing her.

Her lips pulled back as her fangs fully lengthened and her eyes glowed softly. The revenant snapped its jaws at the air trying to taste her on the breeze. Aubrey used her good hand to reach back and pull the modified machete from its sheath. The blade was black as night and seemed to soak up the shadow around it. The revenant marked the soft snickt sound as the blade slipped free and lunged directly for her.

Aubrey waited, patient and still as a coiled snake. It was almost upon her when she twisted out of its path, bringing her arm down with a wicked swing on the return. There was barely any resistance when she severed head from body and her momentum brought her around to full circle. Her own legs wouldn’t support her and she dropped to a knee as the body of the revenant wavered in place then caught fire in a brief flash leaving nothing more than a dark stain of ash in the snow.

It took a monumental effort to get up. It would take more energy than she had to get her machete back in place so she didn’t bother. Aubrey shuffled forward a few steps to examine the ground where the revenant had left its mark.

“God…damn it.”

She should have controlled her temper, she should have waited for the creature to feed and then followed it to its nest. She should have caught it unaware instead of in blood frenzy. Her mistakes had cost her prey and now they may cost her much more. Movement caught her periphery and she raised her head slightly as the large wolf loomed in the darkness. It’s bright eyes pinning her curiously.

“Oh it’s you. You’re not going to find a meal here, puppy.”

She chuckled humorlessly and shuffled a few more steps forward. If she could get to her bike she could get to her emergency rations. It wouldn’t heal her totally but it’d give her enough strength to hunt before finding shelter. Not that she suspected there would be much to eat this far out from Gustavus. The wolf took a few steps forward, watching her warily and she stopped her forward movement. Aubrey swayed dangerously on her feet raised her arm to inspect damage under the torn and shredded leather of her corset.

Shit. Aubrey dropped her arm trudged forward. She only managed another fifteen feet or so before she dropped to her knees in the snow. The wolf inched closer and she tracked it with her eyes.

“Don’t suppose you have any blood?”

The wolf growled deeply and backed away, the great furred body blending with shadow. Aubrey rolled her eyes and waved the hand still holding her machete.

“Don’t be gauche, I don’t eat animals.”

The line between feeding and fucking was a little thin at times and drinking from animals was something left only as a last resort. Darkness swallowed her up and she was barely aware of the ground coming up to meet her. Her last lucid thought was that it was an awfully stupid way to die.


	3. Chapter 3 - Stacie

The sun was making a very slow descent to the horizon and Stacie gave a huff, dropping her shaggy head on to her crossed paws as she watched the patch of earth a few feet away. It had snowed again leaving her covered in a fine dusting of white. She didn’t really know why she’d stayed to watch over the shallow grave. Maybe it was the feeling of obligation, the vampire had saved her life after all. That deserved some sort of loyalty.

And maybe a little bit was selfish motivation. If she didn’t go back she didn’t have to face her pack and their ultimatum. So she had stayed the rest of the night, and all through the day. She probably didn’t need to, nothing had so much as twitched in a ten mile radius. The ground shifted and Stacie raised her head again all her attention on the earth. The sun was still up and Stacie gave a soft whine of distress. She stood and shook the snow out of her fur before pacing back and forth along the small patch.

A hand shot out of the dirt and Stacie huffed, her agitation making her prance from foot to foot. Another hand broke the surface, followed by a crown of pale hair. Stacie gave a short yipping bark when the head finally emerged. The woman was…breathtaking. Even covered in dirt and clawing free of the permafrost, it was obvious she was beautiful, and strong. What damage she couldn’t see she could definitely smell before she’d dug the shallow grave. The great wolf gave a sneeze at the memory and shook her head. The thing…the rabid vampire, had done a lot of damage that Stacie wasn’t sure would heal.

The vampire’s pale eyes tracked to to where she stood and the gaze was nothing she could comprehend. It more than just predatory, it was alien and unnerving. The creature looking back at her didn’t think and didn’t feel like anything in the world that Stacie could understand. And then she was free, there was no slow struggle to pull herself from the earth only an enraged and fangs bared hiss before she was launching directly at the wolf.

Stacie tried to back up and get some distance between to give herself time to shift and speak but it was too late. The demon woman was too fast and too strong and she was caught up in arms like steel bands that could crush the life right out of a human. Or possibly a car. She squirmed and clawed to try and get out of the deadly grip before one of them had to kill the other. She kicked hard with her back feet and could feel leather and fabric tear like paper but the damned vampire wouldn’t let her go. The only thing saving her from a vicious bite was the thick ruff of fur but even then she could feel teeth too close to her jugular for comfort.

Arms tightened around her cutting off her supply of air and threatening to crack her ribs leaving her no choice but to shift. It would be making herself more vulnerable but maybe the surprise would buy her enough time to work with. Enough time to get away. With a savage growl she snapped at the vampire’s face making her pull it back quickly to avoid losing most of it to the wolf’s jaws. Shifting from human to wolf outside of the moon’s pull was difficult as it was, shifting from wolf to human as the the moon started to rise was nearly impossible. Stacie pulled hard on that thread of power that fed her wolf. Hard enough to feel the beast slip away enough for her to compress all of that rage and wild energy down until it throbbed in her chest, ever present and ever ready to spring forth and devour.

Fur melted away from her skin and her body lengthened and stretched painfully, twisting as muscles and bones realigned. The half howl warbled strangely in her human throat and for a second she was weightlessly held in strong arms. But then the snow covered ground came up too fast as she was dropped onto it unceremoniously. The vampire skittered back in a crouch and blinked in bewilderment before the green orbs cleared.

“You….you _buried_ me! Like a fucking bone!”

If she was expecting any gratitude at all she was sorely mistaken. Stacie only had enough time to drag in a ragged breath before the vampire’s cold body pinned her to the ground. She had never been bitten before. Not by a vampire anyway and she most definitely had not been prepared the immediate and sharp lance of pain that made the pain of shifting seem like a dull ache. Her hands pushed against an immovable weight of the other woman but her arms were heavy already.

And then the pain bled into something else entirely and her body arched as a rush of euphoric desire raced down her spine and filled her body right down to her toes. The vampire growled low in her throat as she drank deeply and Stacie could feel herself dropping steadily into a haze of wanton need. She needed to feel cool hands roaming her overheated skin. She pressed her body up closer, head falling back to expose more of her neck. Yes. Need. She needed to give all of herself….

Wait.

No. That wasn’t right. Stacie’s body writhed again under the vampire despite the confusing swirl of thoughts. Something was wrong. Something was very very wrong. The pull of lust was strong but she was stronger, she hadn’t fought her wolf her whole life to just give in to something she didn’t want now. Power rolled through her like the surge she got just before her wolf poured into her body but she didn’t shift like expected. It rose up like a wave and bathed them both in heat.

The vampire pulled back with a rough gasp for breath she didn’t really need. She lifted off Stacie as if she were burned by the contact and flopped onto her back in the snow, hands clawing into the ground to keep her steady as her body bowed from the shock of wild and living power in Stacie’s blood. The blonde woman collapsed back to the ground and rolled lazily to her side. Stacie was still wary but the vampire didn’t seem like she was about to attack, she seemed curious. And maybe a little…drunk?

“What _are_ you?”

Stacie sniffed and backed up a bit when the vampire rolled to her belly and scooted closer. The other woman stopped moving and so did Stacie. She didn’t want to be too close but she couldn’t seem to find the desire to be far either. So they were stuck in an odd crouch facing off while they tried to figure each other out. Stacie dipped her head, eyes still on the vampire as she reached up to trace over the bite mark on her neck. The blonde’s eyes followed her hand, the pupils growing wide with hunger, or lust. It was hard to say.

“You know what I am. You saw me shift.”

The blonde gave a slow nod still staring at the oozing bite. It was a little alarming but Stacie couldn’t tell if that was because the blonde looked like she wanted to bite her again or because Stacie really wanted her to.

“You’re not like other shifters. Wolves don’t defy the call of the moon, they can’t. Their beasts take over and the human part checks out until morning. But not you…”

The vampire inched closer and this time Stacie didn’t back up to keep the small distance between them.

“I control my wolf, it doesn’t control me.”

A trickle of a growl rumbled past her lips and the vampire stopped just short of climbing over Stacie’s body. She could feel the weighted gaze of the other woman as she took in the long length of her leg and the swell of her hip. It wasn’t a physical touch but her body responded like the vampire had caressed her skin with a cold delicate hand and rolled in search of more contact. It was dangerous and stupid. She could be attacked at any second and she wasn’t at all sure she could fight the sweet lull of desire that the bite brought. She would die happily drained of all her blood and begging to be touched.

On the other hand there were worse ways to die and she wouldn’t have to face her pack. Which was just incentive enough for her to almost wish the vampire would attack. Almost as if she read her thoughts the blonde snapped her head up to look Stacie in the eye. The suddenness of the movement should have scared her but the moment their eyes met something plucked the air between them like some great guitar string.

It drew them both together in the same breath, their lips meeting in a desperate kiss. Each of them struggled for control but Stacie didn’t think either of them were in control of anything anymore. She growled and rolled them to pin the blonde beneath her taller frame. The need to feel that cool press of smooth skin against hers was overwhelming making her tear and rip away what already tattered clothing was in her way. It was different than the cold of snow or the crisp chill in the air. The soft curves were comforting, maybe even soothing, in a way no other touch had been before.

Stacie trailed her lips down the blonde’s neck, nipping and licking a line to the soft hollow. A bite there was a killing strike. She could rip the vampire’s throat out, sever head from body, and all this would be over with. She knew the other woman could feel the shift in her thoughts and she expected her to lash out in defense, not the slowly raised chin giving her easier access.

The wolf in her spurred her forward and her face darted down in a fast snap of jaws. But her bite never dug into flesh. Her fangs delicately held the tender flesh, nipping lightly. It the woman had been a wolf she would have understood what was happening. As it was Stacie barely understood it and she had been born a werewolf. Fingertips rough with callouses and trailed over a pale, toned thigh wondering if it was the stolen blood that made the blonde’s body seem to warm up or her own body heat as they slid together in a painfully delicious roll.

Her pack had been right. Eventually her wolf would choose a mate for her. Somehow she didn’t think they were going to be thrilled to find out that her mate was a vampire.


	4. Chapter 4 - Aubrey

“I have to go now…”

The wolf gave a disappointed rumble and pulled her in closer. Aubrey sighed at the feel of all that warm skin pressed along the length of her body. She had spent a couple of decades in Aruba in the early 1700s enjoying the oft docking pirates that no one would miss. She used to swim in the ocean by the light of the moon, the water a warm caress against her chilled skin. She had never felt so overcome by sensation before, nor since. Not until now that the wolf’s warmth enveloped her. The vampire burrowed into the taller woman and bumped her head lightly against her collarbone

“You should stay.”

She wanted to. Oh God, she wanted to. But she could already feel the unpleasant frisson of fear that came with the knowledge that the sun was soon to rise. The fine hairs on her arm rose as another fifteen minutes ticked by and she gave a deep sigh of regret. No matter how she wanted to keep basking in the comfort of the warm body under her she was running out of time.

“You know I can’t.”

“Why not? I saw you rise and stand in daylight.”

Aubrey sat up fully and reluctantly looked around for her something she could put on. The jacket and corset were a lost cause. Her nose crinkled as she picked up the shredded leather pants and glanced at the wolf. Her brow came up but the other woman only shrugged and smiled in a way that was no apology at all. The vampire dropped what was left of her pants and reached for the only item still wearable save for the single boot she couldn’t find the match to. Her machete rig was surprisingly unscathed and she pulled it on, mindful of the scratches down her back.

“That was just for a few minutes. Much longer and you’d have been looking at a charcoal briquette.”The other woman rolled to her side and trailed a hand down Aubrey’s arm. She offered the wolf a slight smile and brought her own hand to the bites she’d left on the woman’s neck, smiling when she twitched and moaned at the contact. “And if I stay any longer I’ll never make it back to the cabin.”

The wolf’s gaze followed as she stood and glanced at the lightening horizon. It was still a stormy enough gray that she wasn’t overly worried just yet. A warm hand wrapped loosely around her calf and she glanced back down. “You could come back to mine. Promise not to bury you again.”

Aubrey’s lips quirked at the joke and shook her head. “I think that would be drawing too much attention to myself. You can always run home in your fur coat. I’ll be riding in on a motorcycle wearing nothing but a machete and a smile.”

The laugh that bubbled up in the brunette was full and rich and Aubrey thought she could easily spend the rest of her days hearing it. It was a terrifying thought really. She didn’t know this woman, had only just met her. If one could call that a first meeting really. But none of that really mattered now she supposed. The tall woman stretched and stood with fluid grace, there was no hesitation or shame in her nudity. A fact that Aubrey more than appreciated as she let her gaze linger over soft curves.

Arms slid around her waist, strong hands grazing over her skin as if the other woman were trying to remember the outline of her body. There was something in the air between them, unspoken and heavy. Something had happened to her, to both of them and she was trying to process it all. It was more than the reluctance to actually leave the wolf’s side. Though that was odd in of itself. It was the way the other woman’s touch affected her, the faint thrill of wild magic she still felt in her veins with every sluggish heartbeat.

“Well if you can’t come to mine…I could maybe come to yours.” They stood there frozen and silent, neither one moving as the thought passed between them. She didn’t have to say anything as the other woman nodded in understanding at the silence. “Right. That’s probably…not gonna happen is it? You a vampire and me a shifter. I don’t suppose that will go over too well will it?”

“Honestly I’m not sure.” Aubrey shrugged and and traced a line down the woman’s spine. If she were like any pure born vampire it was likely that they’d put her to death. Or at the very least cast her out from the coven. But she wasn’t any other pure born, she was different and as such was treated differently. “I doubt anyone would care save for the fact that you might be intending to kill us all in our sleep.”

“I could never kill you.”

It wasn’t as reassuring as she hoped it would be despite the truth she felt in the statement. Aubrey raised her head a little and eyed the shifter in her arms. If things were different could she kill the wolf? Did she even want to? Aubrey reached up to trace a fingertip along the straight bridge of the woman’s nose and along one full pouty lip. No. She couldn’t.

“Something has changed.”

The brunette nodded once solemnly and looked up at the sky with a frown. She glanced back at Aubrey and chewed her lip. “Come back with me and we can talk about it.” There was a pleading tone to the words that Aubrey didn’t really understand. “Please.”

She looked up again then at the other woman. If she didn’t choose one way or the other she was going to have go back in the ground. A thoroughly unpleasant thought all together. Aubrey gently pulled the woman’s face down for a soft kiss.

“I can’t.”

Arms tightened around her then slipped slowly from her body. Aubrey let her fingers trail along the delicate line of the other woman’s jaw and pulled back. She stepped back wishing she could sink back into the other woman but knowing there was danger in that desire beyond getting caught out in the sun.

“Promise to meet me? Tonight? Here?”

It seemed so important to the wolf. So vital that she couldn’t imagine saying no. Instead she nodded and turned before she did something even more foolishly dangerous than riding into town naked and armed just to spend the day in bed with a shifter whose name she didn’t even know. The thought was barely settled in her mind when the other woman called out to her.

“It’s Stacie.”

Aubrey stopped and looked over her shoulder, the tall figure already melting into the treeline as she collapsed to all fours and shook out her furred body. The blonde opened her mouth then closed it with a click and turned back to the still dark interior of the forest at a dead run. The wolf…no… _Stacie_ kept pace with her, charging easily through the same snow drifts that Aubrey’s feet barely left a mark on. The miles melted away under them and she leaned into the run when she reached the faint dip in the ground that let her know she’d reached the faint dirt track she’d left her bike parked on.

Stacie yipped and bounded in a tight circle around the bike. Aubrey swiped a hand over the seat to clear the white powder before she settled on it with a hard kick to start the cold engine. It roared to life and she revved throttle. Birds shot out of the trees above them with a clatter of wings and startled squawks. The wolf gave a low baying bark and Aubrey raised her brow.

“You can call me Aubrey. I’ll see you tonight, puppy.”

Stacie gave an annoyed sneeze and growled unhappily. Aubrey chuckled and dropped her bike into first to speed away. The chains dug into the icy earth pulling her quickly away from Stacie in a snowy spray. She wasn’t too far out from safety but it would be a close call. The machine under her fishtailed as she took a turn tightly with a hair too much speed for chained tires. Only her preternatural balance keeping them both upright as she roared down another even less used path.

The cabin loomed up ahead stark against the pale whitewashed clearing. The sun was rising over the tops of the trees leaving her in full sunlight for the last 100 feet. The engine sputtered and she dropped down a gear to get her up the rise as quickly as possible. She didn’t dare look over her shoulder, she didn’t have to. Her skin on her back tightened and tingled unpleasantly as it reacted to daylight. Aubrey leaped off her bike as close to the small cabin as she could, letting it plow along until it tipped to its side and slid along the ground with the engine still running.

The door to the cabin shuddered under her weight as she barreled into the interior smoke already rising from her pale skin. She sprawled on the ground for a moment, centuries of habit making her crawl through the dark interior even though no sunlight came from the securely boarded windows. Aubrey reached a hand up to press a rough stone on the rustic fireplace set along the wall. It slid forward silently on hidden tracks exposing a dark stairwell down.

Aubrey didn’t relax until the great stone hearth side closed over her head. Soft warm lights glowed at regular intervals along the wall as she too the stairs down to a long hallway. Doors appeared on the walls irregularly spaced but she sped past them. Her quarters were deeper into the catacombs than those she passed, a perk of her rank in the coven. Those that were considered lesser, bitten vampires, were closest to the door, the first to burn if the catacombs were ever breached in full daylight.

Nothing and no one halted her progress, most of the coven already beyond rousing now that sun was up. Aside from her only the oldest had the strength to shamble around after the moon had gone down. Aubrey pushed in her bedroom door, frowning at the candle light spilling from the half closed door to the bathroom. She pushed further into the room, drawing the machete out with a whisper. She used the tip of it to push in the door and glance inside.

Irritation rose at the figure bent over her tub, filling it with her usual fragrance and hot water. He turned his head when the door opened, eyes wide in surprise as he took in her dirt streaked nudity. Aubrey shrugged out of her machete rig and hung it on a hook in the wall. The other vampire watched her silently as she stepped into the water and sunk into it.

“What do you want Massimo?”

The vampire leaned forward still kneeling by the tub and trailed his hand along the edge. It was presumptuous of him to be in her rooms waiting but she couldn’t fault the forethought to prepare a bath for her. She really didn’t have to ask, she knew why he was there. He was there for the same reason that he had been there for the last two hundred years. He wanted her and he hoped that he could eventually wear her down enough to accept his overtures.

“Waiting for you of course. I know how you enjoy a nice soak after a hunt.” He dipped a wash cloth in the water close to her knee and brought it up wipe her upper arm. Aubrey snatched the cloth from his hand and glared. “You wound me, cara mia. I think only of your comfort and you reject me at every turn.”

There was of course a reason for that of course. She wasn’t interested and it was as simple as that but Massimo was never one to take a hint. Or an outright statement. Being persistent in his attentions to women had worked for him for him in the past but Aubrey wasn’t just any woman and his persistence had backfired.

“I have no want or need for your assistance in bathing. You take liberties that are not appreciated.”

He inclined his head in acknowledgment but she could see the way his eyes glittered with irritation. Massimo was getting tired of being rebuffed at every turn and it was starting to crack his facade.

“Were you able to find the creature?”

She let out a soft sigh and waved a hand dismissively. She would rather not discuss it with him, not until she was sure she had a revenant in hand. Until she knew who was creating them she could trust no one with what she knew.

“Yes.” Aubrey carefully wiped at the spot on her side where the creature had wounded her. Her fingers trailed over the smooth skin with a slight frown. With the damage she had taken she shouldn’t be fully healed yet. The only indication that she’d been injured at all were the thin flat lines of fading scars. Massimo watched her carefully, his keen eyes picking up every twitch of expression that crossed her face. The frown melted off her face and she relaxed back against the tub. “I had to destroy it.”

Massimo paced in agitation as she watched. “If you keep killing them we will never discover who is creating them, _cara mia_.” She knew that and didn’t like the way he was reminding her of her failure to bring the creature in. “Your attitude is tolerated because you produce results but if you’re not up to the task then perhaps another should take over your responsibility to the coven.”

There was no threat implied in his words. It was outright stated in every word. Her lip curled slightly then smoothed out quickly. Aubrey chose to ignore him entirely while she worked to bathe. Massimo dropped to a knee and gripped her wrist roughly to get her attention.

“If you’d like to keep that hand you’ll remove it from my person, Massimo.”

His lips pulled back in a cold smile, Massimo’s grip tightening on her wrist to the point of pain, the savageness of his actions reminding her of his strength. It was a warning of what he could do, what he would do if she continued to disappoint him.

“I would be very careful how you treat me, Aubrey. You could do worse than my very generous offer to raise your station beyond your…shameful blood.”

Rage blossomed in her chest, familiar and not at the same time. Wild magic rushed into her as strong as if she were feeding from Stacie directly. Aubrey felt her lips pull back over lengthened fangs, a growl entirely unlike herself trickled over her lips as she pulled her hand back and shoved it forward against Massimo’s chest. She hadn’t expected it to do more than push him back weakly a few inches at most but the strength surprised them both. The vampire flew back against the stone wall with a meaty slap and slid down it in a stupor.

Aubrey looked at her hand, alarmed by the power she’d felt. Massimo’s wide surprised eyes narrowed in suspicion and he jerkily stood, pulling his silk shirt straight. The power in her faded to a dull roar in the back of her head. The older vampire stalked quickly from the bathroom, slamming her door as he left her rooms. She settled back against still contemplating her own hands and the new found strength in them.

“What in the hell…”


	5. Chapter 5 - Stacie

Stacie pranced around the bike with barely contained energy. Her wolf had enjoyed the excitement of chasing the vampire this far. Her whole life Stacie had always been able to outrun everyone and everything that wanted to cage her in and lock her down. Hunters, lovers, friends, packs….family. No one could ever come close to catching her before let alone push her to keep up. It was a new experience and she found herself liking it.

The rumble of the engine was loud and she gave a bark to get the woman’s attention. It was silly because she couldn’t actually speak but she didn’t want to see her mate ride off without one last look. Sillier still because she didn’t even know her name. They just hadn’t gotten that far before the bond drew them together. The vampire raised a brow and smirked at her almost as if she’d heard her thought.

“You can call me Aubrey. I’ll see you tonight puppy.”

Stacie sneezed and growled, one foot pawing at the ground in irritation. It seemed to amuse Aubrey even more but there wasn’t any time to enjoy herself. The sun was breaking just behind them and she’d have to move fast to keep ahead of it. The bike roared off and Stacie watched for second before she darted off back toward town. She lengthened her stride and settled into the run through the forest, thoughts of her pack warring with the memory of looking up at Aubrey’s pale writhing body in the moonlight.

Eventually Aubrey won out and she let her mind wander over every minute of their encounter. It was distracting enough that she narrowly avoided running into a tree or two before she broke past the forest. Stacie put her ears back and pushed faster wanting to make it home before the pack inevitably showed up. She knew they’d likely be angry at her for avoiding them all and missing a run on the full moon. Mating with Aubrey wasn’t going to make any of that easier to bear either. Not that she would change it if she could.

Maybe it was just the magic of the bond but it _felt_ right. Being with the vampire had felt like a home she never really had or wanted before. And maybe hours prior she might have scoffed at the idea that she’d feel this way, but she did now and that was okay. She wanted this…thing between them to work. A thought that should have been a little concerning at the very least. Stacie tucked it away to think on later as she slunk into the narrow alley behind her shop and leaped into the still open window.

As soon as her paws hit the floor she knew someone was there. Stacie padded to the narrow staircase in the corner of the office and stared up it. She sniffed the air then gave a disgruntled growl and headed up. Redd was laying in her bed in all his chiseled perfection, one arm spread over her pillow as he leaned against the headboard waiting. They weren’t together. Not in the traditional sense of the word. He was tall and handsome with sandy blonde hair and abs to die for. And she’d slept with him. More than once.

Something she regretted deeply now. It wasn’t that Redmond wasn’t a good man, or wolf. He was, and he was strong and fast. Just never strong or fast enough for her to think of as more than just a comforting distraction. She knew he was hoping to be her mate, that most of the pack already considered him her mate but she didn’t want him. Not like that. So she’d been distancing herself from the other wolf slowly but as the pack got more anxious for her to choose he became more persistent in his interest.

Stacie shifted reluctantly at the entrance to her room and breezed past the bed for the bathroom. He watched her start the shower and grab a towel before he finally spoke. His deep voice soft and amused as it fell from his annoyingly smirky lips that made her want to hiss her displeasure. Something she’d never done before but the thought felt oddly natural if slightly confusing. 

“So who was she?”

She didn’t answer as she stepped into the shower. It wasn’t any of his business who she had spent the night with and as his Alpha she didn’t owe him any damn answers. The fact that he dared to ask bothered her in a way she couldn’t explain. Maybe because she wasn’t quite ready to share her experience with Aubrey. Stacie stuck her head under the warm spray and huffed when she realized it was too hot for her even after being outside all night. She turned the nob to the right, adjusting it to a fine cool spray before placing her palms on the cold tile of the shower wall. It wasn’t even close to the feeling of Aubrey’s cool hands drifting down her body but it would do for the moment.

The door to the bathroom pushed open with a creak and she glanced over her shoulder at Redd. He crossed his arms over his chest and dropped his head to the side as he let his eyes roam up her body. It was a completely different experience from the night before with Aubrey and she turned away from him in naked disinterest.

“Pack missed you last night.”

“I know. I needed space.” And she had. That was why she had run off in the first place. She had wanted distance from everything that her pack demanded of her. And had run headlong into exactly what they wanted. Well. Maybe not _exactly_. Stacie didn’t like the weight of Redd’s presence, it felt choking and smothering and made her want to shift just so she didn’t have to deal with it but she couldn’t. She had a responsibility to her people and she was going to have to face them no matter how distasteful. “They’ll be here soon enough anyway.”

Redd gave a grunt of agreement patiently waiting for her to wash her hair before he spoke again. “I know you know what they wanted to say. I’m sorry. Wasn’t my choice but it’s what the pack wants, what would make them feel safer.”

Stacie rolled her eyes at that. She was positive that he was perfectly fine with the pack’s choice, he had made that plenty clear before. He must have read her disbelief in her silence because she could hear him raise his big hands and drop them to his sides in defeat.

“Look, Stacie…you’ve done a lot of good for the pack and the town but you’re a runner. Every pack from here to Prague knows it. You think that’s easy for us? Wondering if you’re going to get tired of our home and our lives? Get tired of us maybe? Other packs can take care of themselves but this pack can’t, and without you the pack goes feral. They want you to mate and bear pups because we don’t trust you to stick around!”

It was the way he changed from ‘they’ to 'we’ in the same sentence that caught her attention. Stacie turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. He handed her a towel that she took with a snatch and a glare. Redd took the meaning and stomped out of the bathroom. She wiped the mirror and stared at herself for a long moment. She had always known he was ambitious and opportunistic but now she was starting to wonder exactly where pack got the idea that making her settle down with someone was binding her to them all.

Anger flashed through her dragging the growl up from her throat but it wasn’t a familiar anger because it wasn’t her own. It was a cold rage that trebled down her spine making her grip the edge of the counter as she tried to control the wolf in her. Her normally green eyes flared a deep honey yellow as her wolf rose before she could rein it in. The stone top counter crumbled in her hands as the beast roared up and for a second she was afraid the shift would happen no matter what she did but it didn’t. Her wolf pulled right to the surface making her eyes flash the cold silver of Aubrey’s vampire rage for the space between heartbeats and dropped back down leaving her gasping and weak kneed in the wake of it.

“Oh…whaaaat the fuuuuuck…”

She blinked at herself in the mirror unsure if she had actually seen it happen or if she hallucinated it. The amber of her eyes bled back to green and she leaned forward, nose nearly touching the glass as she gasped in her breaths.

“Aubrey?”

Stacie shook her head looked down at the counter. Damnit. She hastily cleaned up what she could, dropping the pieces in the trash bin and washed her hands. Something had happened that she didn’t understand and she didn’t have the time to figure it out now though she suspected it had something to do with her bond to the vampire. The wolf gave herself one last wary look in the mirror and took a settling breath. Whatever had just happened, whatever _was_ happening, it would have to wait. She moved into her bedroom to dress quickly as the sound of the back door to her shop opening reached her ears.

She was just rolling up the sleeves of her lightweight flannel when Cynthia Rose appeared in the door way. Stacie felt the tired disappointment in her Beta and she sighed.

“I know.”

The other wolf didn’t say anything but she didn’t have to. Running off had proven the pack’s point adequately enough. Stacie stroked a hand down the other woman’s arm in a comforting pet and jerked her head toward the kitchen.

“C'mon, I’ll get breakfast started, you’ve gotta be starving.”

Cynthia Rose’s stomach rumbled its agreement and she chuckled. They walked hand in hand to the open kitchen on the other side of the loft. Redd was already brewing a pot of coffee and she nodded gratefully at him when he handed CR a mug. He might be trying to make her mate with him but she honestly believed he thought it was for the good of the pack. She trusted that he would protect and serve them as a good leader would and should.

Her bare feet were silent as she moved around the kitchen preparing mountains food. Wolves started trickling in sullen and hungry as she worked. They settled in pairs and groups anywhere they could sit as Stacie served out plates laden with pancakes, eggs and steak, delivering all of them with affectionate nuzzles and caresses. The reassurances soothed them almost as much as the food. She smiled as Angus leaned into her shoulder and helped gather empty plates.

She loved these people, they were hers and she had no intention of abandoning them. Even if the thought crossed her mind from time to time she had made her home here. Some of the wolves needed her more than the others. Like sweet Wade. Her eyes drifted over the members of her pack looking for a familiar hunched shoulder and dipped head. Not every wolf was here, many of them were outliers, they lived in Tongass and only kept a loose association with the pack. It wasn’t a common practice to have independent wolves in your pack, it was dangerous to have a potential gathering of wolves outside of the pack’s control in the same territory. It could lead to bloody squabbles over hunting grounds and ranks of dominance.

But Stacie hadn’t worried so much about outliers forming their own pack. She wasn’t going to force anyone’s allegiance or push for conformity. That wasn’t wolf culture, that was all human. So she didn’t expect to see every single one of her people but definitely expected Wade. Stacie caught Redd watching her and she frowned slightly before jerking her head to beckon him. She reached out and tapped lightly on CR’s elbow and trailed a hand along Angus’ shoulder. They followed her down to the shop obediently.

“Anyone seen Wade?” They shook their heads in confusion and she sighed. “What about on the moon?”

Angus frowned and looked at Cynthia Rose then back to Stacie. “He usually sticks to your flank. I didn’t see him last night at all.”

It wasn’t an accusation at all but she felt it in her soul nonetheless. She should have been there last night she knew that. But if she had been she wouldn’t have been with Aubrey. Stacie’s brow furrowed and she gave a slight nod of acknowledgment. It was probably nothing and for any other of her wolves she wouldn’t be concerned, at least not like this. But it was one of the weaker wolves and hers to protect. Thoughts of the rabid vampire that tried to kill her sprang to her mind and that fear made her heart race.

“I don’t like it. Last night…there was something out there.”

Redd raised his head and eyed her curiously. “Something like what? Vampires? We can handle them just fine. That’s your rule right? Keep the fangers away?”

She narrowed her eyes at the unexpected aggression but his face gave nothing away. Stacie nodded once and glanced at the other two. If they were to come up against one of those creatures alone they wouldn’t survive it. She very nearly didn’t.

“Something like that. It was stronger than anything I’ve ever seen. It was a vampire but…different. It was sick and unreasoning.” And the smell of decay had been thick and choking from the moment it opened its mouth. It was dead and rotting inside in a way that regular vampires were not. “I want the patrols doubled up around town, two to three in a group and we don’t stay out of baying range. I have the feeling there will be more of them out there.”

“You saw it?” Stacie flicked her eyes to Redd’s and nodded. He swallowed thickly, some of the irritation at her melting away quickly. “Did it attack you?”

She nodded once but didn’t elaborate. It was better not to go into further detail about the night until she had time to talk to Aubrey about it. Instead she nodded to her strongest wolves and gestured to the door. They would obey her without question now that they knew there was something out there worth being afraid of.

“It’s full day, I’ll send out messengers to the outlier camps, in the meantime…find Wade. If he’s hurt or lost he’ll be scared, cold and hungry.”

They nodded and filed out the back door. Redd stopped before it swung shut behind him and leveled a sad eyed look at her. He knew that the chance of finding Wade alive was slim. Even if he’d survived the night without incident he’d likely be not survive the day in the wildness naked and stuck in human form. She turned away from the pitying look and took the stairs back up to the loft. Wade wasn’t her only wolf and she had others to protect and care for now.

* * *

It was late afternoon by the time the messenger had returned from the forest. She still hadn’t heard from her Betas and her unsettled spirit was making her pack restless. They had stayed, filling her loft and garage with warm bodies, a low level tension running through all of them. She had done her best to soothe them with reassuring touches but worry was starting to gnaw at her insides.

The crunch of truck tires on fresh snow made her lift her head and stare at the open bay of the garage. Stacie walked out into the sunlight, blinking at the surprising brightness just as Redd’s big old Chevy pulled into the alley. She knew something was wrong before she even got to the tailgate. CR didn’t meet her eye and Angus…oh Angus.

Stacie could barely process the sight of him cradling Wade’s blue tinged and stiff body. The quiet sobs louder than a concussive blast to her ears. She pulled herself into the bed of the truck so she could see for herself the worst of it. Her mind refused to accept the sight of her sweet and gentle Wade, face twisted in fear and pain. Her pack drifted out of the shop, surrounding the truck with murmurs and soft sobs but she couldn’t see a single one. All she saw was Wade.

Stacie plucked a few twigs out of his matted hair, caressing his brow in a gentle caress of apology. “Oh Wade….no…”

This was her fault. Tears rushed up before she could force them back, they spilled hotly down her cheeks as she reached out to to cradle Wade’s head to her chest. Grief hit her in a rush of guilt and pain and rage and she didn’t even bother to stop herself with the wolf demanded control. Stacie tipped her head back and let it out in one deep and reverberating howl that echoed far past the edge of town to the forest behind it.

Around her the voices of her pack joined hers in an eerie song of mourning. Every wolf for miles would cry for Wade and she could already hear the echo of howls far into the woods. And though she didn’t know it…miles away, deep within the catacombs, dead asleep in the full light of day, her vampire woke.


	6. Chapter 6 - Aubrey

If asked she would have said she rose on her own, but Aubrey knew that wasn’t true. She’d felt…something. Something strong enough to rouse her from the depths of her slumber. Vampires didn’t just sleep when the sun rose, they died. All semblance of true life leaving them as suddenly as a candle going out in a breeze. And while the elder vampires could stay awake past sunrise it wasn’t for very long and they certainly didn’t make a habit of waking before sunset. Even for her, rising while the sun was still high was difficult at best but here she was wide awake, sheet pooled around her waist as she sat up and searched the darkness around her for the source of her unrest.

It hit her hard and she was unprepared for the onslaught of so much grief and heartbreak. Aubrey gasped in shock at the force of so much…pain. And guilt. She wasn’t immune to feelings, she had them no matter how deeply she buried them to protect herself. Deeply enough that the memory of them was only a dull ache in the back of her mind from time to time. So yes, Aubrey _knew_ what loss felt like, but she had never felt this raw and broken before. It poured into her chest like a river of lava, burning and scorching her down to her bones.

Worst of all, in the maelstrom of emotion, she felt Stacie’s presence in all of it. Something was very wrong. Aubrey flung the sheet aside and slid out of the heavy ebony hardwood bed. Another mournful stab made her knees weak and she leaned against the matching wardrobe, one hand pressed tenderly to her heart.

“Stacie…”

She didn’t know why she was in so much of a hurry. It was still daylight out though she knew the sun would drop early and suddenly as it always did in this season. But for the moment it was still too light out, even for her dhampir blood to endure. That knowledge however didn’t stop her from dressing in her usual hunting gear as quickly as she could. Something that was somewhat of a challenge when waves of anguish kept flooding her mind and heart. 

Aubrey eased the harness over her shoulders and rolled them to settle her machete in place. The familiar weight of resting against her back was settling and helped her focus past the constant pressure of Stacie’s emotional state. She opened the door to her rooms intending on leaving despite the early hour. She didn’t intend to stay stuck underground while she was so desperately needed elsewhere. The vampire took a step out into the hall, the door clicking shut behind her almost too loud for the silence that pressed in around her.

She took three steps before the scent hit her. It was unusual, really. Not the scent, though that was unusual as well, it was the fact that she could smell anything beyond the damp cold earth they were all entombed in. Her nostrils flared delicately as she tipped her head up and scented the air, following the faint trail. Something shuffled near silently in the deepest shadow of the corridor and she tracked her gaze to it. Aubrey’s fangs lengthened and a small growl of unease trickled past her lips.

The shadows moved silkily and the broad shouldered figure stepped into the soft lamp lit hall. She knew who it was immediately and retracted her fangs when she realized there was no threat. Erasmus stopped his movement and dipped his head respectfully. It made sense now what she had caught on the air before, why it seemed so out of place. It wasn’t often that the human slave wandered the upper corridors.

Erasmus was one of a few kept slaves but he had lasted much longer than the pathetic wraith like creatures that prostrated themselves at their masters’ feet and were nothing more than ready meals. Those others only lasted a few years if that, passed around from vampire to vampire like party favors until they had been drained to a dry husk. Erasmus had been around longer than even she had, something she didn’t understand but suspected it had to do with the vampire he belonged to.

He was special to the head of their coven and as such enjoyed certain privileges, like the freedom to move around unmolested…for most of the catacombs at least. He was much safer on the lower floors with vampires old enough to have excellent control of their appetites and enough fear to know better than to poach from The Lady. But up higher it was much riskier and she wondered what would make him venture so far up even during sleep hours.

“Good afternoon Aubrey.”

She dipped her head respectfully as she always did and he gave a gentle smile. If other vampires respected and feared The Lady they never extended it to Erasmus. Perhaps they didn’t mistreat him, but they often ignored him to the point of open disdain. She was fairly certain none of them really knew his name simply choosing to refer to him as The Greek or not at all. Aubrey had understood all too well what a life alone among enemies was like. They were the same in a way, two small islands in a sea of violent hostility.

“Erasmus.”

“You’re up early, even for you.”

Aubrey gave a shallow dip of her head in acknowledgment and looked back down the hall toward the stairs up. She should go now, she _had_ to go now. Erasmus nodded silently though she had given no answer and sighed as if he knew something she did not.

“ _She_ wishes to see you, and the sun is still too bright for you to leave safely.”

“Why?” It had taken her off guard and she blinked in question at him.

He gave a slight shrug and Aubrey took that to mean that he wouldn’t have told her if he did know. She gave the stairs a final look feeling her heart squeeze in her chest before following after his already silently retreating figure. It was never a good sign when your coven leader was awake and waiting for you to rise and she wondered how long Erasmus had been standing in the hallway ready to deliver the summons. Her eyes already well accustomed to the dark didn’t need to adjust as they marched deeper into the catacombs but her focus sharpened to search the shadows for anything else that might be lying in wait.

There was nothing but deeper shadow and cold silence as they reached the furthest end of the corridor. Erasmus stopped at the door and turned to look at her, offering a tight lipped smile that she could neither read as encouragement nor understanding pity. Aubrey straightened her shoulders, her spine going even more rigid than usual as she stalked into the large open chamber and dropped to a knee, head dipped respectfully. There was no sound but the reptilian slither of a long leather train dragging across the stone ground toward her.

It was dangerous to be there in front of the head of her coven with her heart so wild and her head so unfocused. Aubrey closed her eyes and forced her mantle of cold logic and reasoning to fill her body and drown out the distracting heat in her chest that came with all things Stacie. It settled her and a tiny echo of relief lapped at her awareness, relief that she knew was not her own. The Lady said nothing as she stood before Aubrey and the younger vampire forced herself not to twitch under the weighted gaze.

“I’ve had some troubling news dear niece.”

Aubrey raised her head quickly and glanced at the tall blonde woman looming over her. She dropped her head again without word. It hadn’t occurred to her before that someone would know what had happened with Stacie. That someone would have seen her with the wolf. But now that she was kneeling in front of the oldest vampire she had ever known she wondered if someone _had_ seen it all.

“Nothing to say for yourself?”

She hesitated a moment too long and one slender finger slid under her chin to tip her head up and raising her to her feet. They stared at each other, matching pale green eyes bleeding to gray as their demons rose. One did not lie to The Lady and she was sure that if she tried that she would be staked immediately so she chose her words carefully.

“There have been a great many troubling events Mistress.”

A pale brow raised, deep red lips quirking slightly in amusement. “Always so careful. A skill that has served you well surviving among us.”

It was in no way an acknowledgment of Aubrey as a vampire. It was just another backhanded way of pointing out that she was less than by virtue of her blood. They may be related but there was no love between them. Aubrey could no sooner be worthy of the title of niece than she could sprout wings and fly. It was only duty to her father and Aubrey’s usefulness as a hunter…and influencer that stayed her aunt’s hand from a killing blow.

“I survive to serve, Mistress. That is my place in your coven and I know it well.”

It was toeing a line and she knew it and so did The Lady. Her chin was released and Aubrey felt her muscles relax. If she were going to die, it would have happened already. This…this was all just a game for The Lady. A test for Aubrey herself. One she seemed to have passed.

“Very well then, serve. Tell me of the revenant you were to capture.”

She watched her aunt pour two wine glasses of blood before handing her one casually. Aubrey took it and sipped cautiously as she considered what to say and what to leave out.

“I tracked it for a few days to a clearing a few miles out. I suspect whoever is creating them is one of our own.”

“I have no doubt that you’re correct. Now tell me why you killed it.”

A chill ran down her spine though it was less fear and more anger. There was only one person outside of herself and Stacie that knew she had put the creature down. Aubrey tamped down on the rise of rage and sighed as she looked at the glass in her hand. Massimo would pay, and he would pay soon.

“I had no choice Tante.”

If her laugh was meant to be comforting, it wasn’t. It was cold and calculating and everything that Aubrey feared in the world. She carefully kept her eyes averted and waited for the shift of air to let her know where The Lady was.

“Oh you are clever, _niece,_ to remind me why you yet live.” Silence followed the statement and Aubrey carefully looked up to see her aunt watching her carefully from a seat that was nothing short of a throne. “Explain.”

Aubrey took a drink from the glass and drained it before boldly placing it on the sideboard with the crystal decanter. She purposefully eased the tension in her body and rolled one shoulder in a shrug. Lying was out of the question but that didn’t mean she had to give every single detail of the event, careful editing would keep her alive another night.

“It was close to sunrise and I had hoped to find shelter as soon as it sought safety. I thought if I could track it to its den I could take it alive before the next moon rose and force it to lead me to its sire. I was ill prepared for someone to wander right into the damned thing’s grasp.”

There was a soft hum from The Lady but she only gestured for Aubrey to continue. She was still on dangerous ground but at least her aunt was listening and not reacting. Yet.

“I had no choice. I couldn’t let the infection spread and it was too close to light to track all the way back to town. Even I couldn’t survive that.”

“And the human?”

“Escaped, likely assuming a bear had attacked her.”

“Her?” She realized her mistake too late to change it now. Aubrey nodded once but didn’t elaborate. If she had said ‘it’ instead of 'her’ it was likely that her aunt would have disregarded the fact that someone from the town survived the experience and could tell the tale to any that would listen. As it was that one small error let The Lady know that Aubrey had taken interest enough to differentiate. “Continue.”

“I was badly injured during the fight, I had to end it. It was unfortunate but necessary for our coven’s survival and I would do it again without thought or question.” The truth rang out in her words and she raised her chin defiantly. She’d done the right thing by saving Stacie and killing the revenant. There wasn’t one moment that she would have changed from that night. Her aunt nodded slowly in agreement. “It was too close to sunrise and I was too injured to find safety so I…buried myself.”

It was hard to get the words out past gritted teeth but she managed to swallow down her anger over it. She knew Stacie had saved her life and was grateful but the shame of being a born vampire having to crawl from the dirt of a shallow grave…the _insult_!

The Lady tipped her head back and let an entirely too amused laugh bubble up. Aubrey lowered her head and glanced away more to conceal the hated in her eyes. Her aunt stood, clapping in delight as she circled her. It was hard to let the other woman cross behind her without looking but Aubrey stood her ground, unconcerned and more than a hair aloof.

Her aunt gave another quiet hum then flicked her hand idly at some imaginary dirt on Aubrey’s shoulder. She only just kept her lip from curling in response but her aunt seemed not to notice the twitch of muscle as she fought to control her expression. The Lady turned her back and strutted back to her throne, settling into it regally.

“You have enemies here, Aubrey. A great many. I can protect you only for so long if you continue to fail.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

The Lady watched her unblinkingly for several long minutes, each second ticking by slowly. Whatever her aunt was thinking she couldn’t begin to fathom but she assumed it was nothing good. It never was.

“There is something different about you today. I doubt you even realize it yourself and if you did you surely wouldn’t tell me.” That much was true enough but she wasn’t going to openly agree. “Whatever you’re hiding, I’ll find out. The truth always comes to light Aubrey. Always.”

A shadow flickered behind her aunt’s eyes and she turned away from Aubrey and dismissed her with a wave of her hand. Aubrey turned and started for the door stopping only when her aunt called out for her at the last second.

“Oh and Aubrey, be a dear…kill the girl.”

Every muscle in her body tightened as she stopped in the door way with her hand still on the knob. Her head turned slowly to eye the other woman still watching her every move. To argue would only send someone else in search of Stacie. Someone more than willing to kill, and even more willing to reveal Stacie’s secret. No. That she could not allow, and though it disturbed her deeply she bowed her head in acceptance.

“Yes, Mistress.”


	7. Chapter 7 - Stacie

“Get out. Everyone get out.”

It was flat and as monotone as she could make it as she cradled Wade’s head gently in her lap. A few of her wolves shifted nervously from foot to foot. They could sense the building disquiet inside of her threatening to yank her wolf to the surface outside of her control. A heavy unwanted hand rested on her shoulder and she shrugged it off with a low growl. Redd pulled his hand back immediately but he stepped in closer to her making that earlier feeling of claustrophobia kick into high gear.

The beast in her roared up to fill her body and she clenched her teeth to try and hold back another growl. The warm bodies that had been so comforting moments before were too much for her to be around and she felt like she was drowning in her guilt and anger and she didn’t know how to find her center. Redd tried again to push his way past her personal bubble and she lashed out with a snarling snap of fully lengthened teeth.

“Stacie…now c'mon.”

She knew it was wrong. She knew she needed to keep it all together for the pack, for _Wade_. But it was hard when it was such a struggle to contain all that wild power inside of her. She wanted to run, she wanted to stretch and push herself and put as many miles between her heart and this devouring pain as she could. She had never had to stay there trapped with this kind of hurt before. Stacie had never had to deal with it or face it for long in the past because she’d just run off anytime things got too much. She’d been running her whole life. Just like she had done the night before.

And look what had happened.

Pain tore at her and she scooted closer to Wade, holding his lifeless hand in hers, rearranging its placement gently on his chest. It shouldn’t have happened and this was all entirely her own fault. The heavy sinking feeling sucked her into a bubble of despair she didn’t know how to break. Her wolves shuffled around, some of them skittering back wary and afraid of where her temper would take her. She might have cared about that if she could find the kernel of herself in all the loss she was feeling. Not just loss but lost. She was lost and she didn’t know how to find her way out of it.

The air shifted as Cynthia Rose gracefully sank into a crouch just close enough to get Stacie’s attention but not close enough to get bit. She didn’t look up at her friend, she only leaned over Wade more protectively. CR reached out to touch her but she flinched away with a low warning, unable to control herself. Her Beta gave a slow understanding nod of her head and kept her hands to herself.

“I know it hurts. Tell me what you need and I got'chu, Stace.”

The lost haze she was in thinned and she turned her head to try and focus on the other woman. They were so close together, everyone was so damn close. Stacie shut her eyes tightly and tried to breathe past the pressure in her chest. The garage bay was just too thick with bodies and too warm and she just couldn’t think past that ever closing wall.

Just when she didn’t think she could take it any more a trickle of cool detached calm slid down her spine. Stacie opened her mouth and took in a shuddering breath finally able to take in air to lungs tight with the need of it. It was small at first, just the faintest thread of Aubrey’s settling presence but it was her lifeline and her wolf followed that tenuous line as far back to its source as it could. Stacie took every drop of steadying strength that she could. Her eyes blinked open and her shuddered breaths eased. It hurt, it still fucking hurt, but the shocking sharpness of the pain was dulled enough for her to think past.

“Please. Go.”

Cynthia Rose nodded her head ready to send everyone away and leave her to mourn but Redd gave a frustrated huff. Some of the other wolves responded in kind and Stacie wasn’t so far gone that she didn’t notice it. Slowly she raised her head the Alpha in her rolling out in a strong wave of power reminding them all who led the pack. Some of them backed down in the wake of it, but some…some still looked to Redd.

“After the howl the outliers will be in. There’s no time to waste and no running to be had now Stacie. I think we should hunt out every single one of those fucking vampires and drag them into the sun.” His supporters started a low rumble of agreement, the murmur spreading those still on the fence. Violence for the sake of violence wasn’t enough to sway the entire pack and he changed his angle slightly to get as many people on board with him as possible. “After what they did to Wade we owe them some retribution. I say we make them pay!”

The murmurs grew to agreeing shouts and she knew they were toeing a line that could end in a war with innocent humans caught in the middle. Cynthia Rose shook her head sadly and leveled a stare at her Alpha. It wasn’t long and it wasn’t challenging, it was a plea. She was begging Stacie to _lead_. Lead in a way she had been too skittish and reluctant to do in the past. The Alpha looked down at Wade’s frozen body and gently laid him back down in the bed of the truck.

“Well it’s a good thing I don’t care what you think Redmond.” She could hear him snarl behind her and the rumble of a growl from Cynthia Rose. There was no warning in it, that was a growl that was a promise and despite the heaviness of her heart she smiled. Redd didn’t have every wolf on his side and that meant something. Another surge of Aubrey’s strength washed over her helping to clear the last of her foggy thoughts and she was beyond grateful. Stacie covered Wade with the tarp before standing and facing the rest of them. “And nothing you say matters because you’re not the goddamn Alpha.”

Cynthia Rose dropped her head with a slight smile and slid out of the bed of the truck leaving her alone with Redd, Wade’s body between them. He rested his hands on his hips but she could see it was a struggle for him not to cross them over his chest. Redd was still trying to appear reasonable at least in front of the rest of the pack.

“They attacked one of our own, they attacked _you_. You know this can’t go unanswered and you know that we have to stick together!”

There were too many nods of agreement for her to casually disregard and in one thing Redd was right, Wade’s death needed to be answered for. Stacie took the two steps between them and closed the distance. Redd stood his ground and she gave regretful shake of her head at his belligerence.

“We are sticking together. No one is running and we’re not about to hunt out a vampire coven so that we can pick a fight with them. That does nothing to help us figure out what happened here today.”

He snorted and for a moment Stacie thought he might actually challenge her for Alpha. But when she pinned him with her gaze he just dropped his eyes and turned away. Her mistake was in taking her eyes off him even for a second. Of course that was probably only one of many mistakes. His arm swung out in a quick swipe that was inches from her throat. It wasn’t meant to make contact only expose the line of neck and the ridge of broken skin from Aubrey’s bite. Her hand went to it more for reassurance than to cover, fingers tracing the edge of newly healed skin.

“That’s what happened today. Those monsters are out there attacking us and you just want everything to go away!” The rumbles dropped to whispers and Stacie straightened her back under the sudden attention. She hadn’t wanted it to be this way, she had never wanted to rule with force. She had never wanted to make anyone submit to her will with a heavy hand. But Redd was forcing her hand. “If you don’t want to be involved you can just leave it me and mine. We’ll take care of the pack.”

A ripple of muscle made her cheek twitch as she fought the shift to a standstill. Some of the pack took a step back at his words, already trying to distance themselves from what that sounded like. Some of them brazenly nodded with agreeing grunts and that was who she needed to remind. Anger burned through her and she grabbed the front of his shirt and flung Redmond from the back of the truck. Stacie leaped and was on him before his body hit the hard concrete ground. One hand wrapped around his neck, the other clawed into the soft vulnerable flesh just under his ribs. Just a little push, the barest of pressure and she would pierce the skin and draw blood.

“What I don’t want is to start a war that could potentially expose all of us, or worse, sign our death warrants.” Redmond didn’t move a muscle but a bead of sweat rolled along his brow to drip to the ground. “Not without knowing what we’re up against. I need to know what happened, and who exactly is responsible so that we can get justice for our brother.”

“It doesn’t seem…”

Stacie tightened her grip on his throat before he could utter words that would get him killed. Saying she didn’t seem to care about Wade or justice for him was more than wrong it was an insult. And it didn’t even have to be this way, all she had wanted was a little space and a little time to process everything. She had just wanted a moment to herself to catch her breath and figure out what the hell was going on. Now it was a divisive fight for control of the pack’s loyalty.

Cynthia Rose cleared her throat and gave a small nervous chuckle. “Lets all just cool back here. Everybody is real hurt right now and we all want the same things, right?” She reached out slowly and rested her hand on Stacie’s shoulder to give it a gentle squeeze. “No one really means what they stupidly say in anger. Right?”

She knew that she should end this before it was a bigger problem later but that thought was foreign and just a hair too calculating making her wonder if it had come from Aubrey. Stacie eased her grip on his throat and backed away cautiously not yet ready to trust but not ready to kill him either. If anyone was disgruntled they knew better than to show it as her intense focus swept over everyone assembled.

“Let me make it clear to everybody since there seems to be some doubt. Wade was mine, my wolf to call, my pack mate and a brother. If you, any of you…” A growl spilled past her lips as she stared directly at Redd until his shoulders hunched and he lowered his head. Emotion choked her words in her throat but she pushed past it to keep speaking. “If any of you don’t believe that you can challenge me right now.”

If energy had a sound it would have been a high intent keen in that moment. All eyes turned toward her, even those filled with wary caution, and far too many with open distrust. She was losing her pack and Stacie wondered how long she’d been letting it happen without realizing. Maybe without caring would be more accurate. Stacie looked around and no one stepped forward to challenge her. Not even Redmond. The carefully measured breaths weren’t fooling her though, he wanted the pack. At least, he wanted to prove something to the pack. Or to her. Whatever his goal it was clear that she needed to keep a better eye on him. Stacie let her eyes drift over to Cynthia Rose who was watching her with interest. They shared a knowing look between them and a nod, the other woman’s dark eyes quietly assessing situation accurately. Vampires weren’t the only threat to the pack.

“No one?” More silence but the hum of energy was still there still pressing in on every side and she felt like she couldn’t breathe again. “Just…go. We’ll talk more later I just need…”

A barrel chested, wide body pushed out from between other wolves, Angus stood before her and she wondered if this was it. He had always obeyed her just sometimes reluctantly and it made her worry just a little now. Not because she was afraid he’d win, but because she didn’t want to hurt him to prove a point. Stacie’s spine straightened and she took a breath ready for whatever had to happen in the next moment, resigned to it even. A tremble ran through him and he refused to look up even as he whined softly.

“Angus?”

“I was mean to him. I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…he was trying to help and I… it’s my fault Stacie. It’s my fault.”

Whatever she had been preparing for it wasn’t this. Angus dropped to his knees and clung to her legs as heavy sobs wracked his body. The shock of it made her slow to move when he pressed his face against her belly, soaking her shirt with open tears. He must have taken it as rejection because he whined again tried to hold her closer as if he were afraid she’d cast him away. Slowly she brought her hands up to cradle his head gently, leaning down to give it a soft nuzzle.

“You didn’t do this to him Angus but I promise you I’ll find out who did.”

She really wanted to claim all the blame herself but something told her not to be quite that honest. Not in a moment with such precarious and delicate balance right now. Little by little the wolves surrounded them tighter and she fought against suffocating closeness to give them each a comforting touch. Redd kept to the back of the group just watching her and she could feel his attention practically burning her skin. Stacie didn’t look at him or even acknowledge his presence as she continued to tend to her people, if he had something to say he get around to it eventually.

“Let’s give Stacie some space, y'all. I’m sure we all have stuff to be getting on with before…”

Everyone followed Cynthia Rose’s gaze to the truck. She didn’t have to finish the thought. No one was going to forget what had to be done or the promise she made to the pack regarding Wade. Slowly her people peeled themselves away and shuffled out. Angus stayed clinging to her, still softly crying until CR gently pried his arms from around Stacie’s waist to give her the space she so desperately craved. Redd waited until everyone was nearly out before he tried to pull her in close to his chest and hold her.

But she didn’t want to be held. Not by him. Stacie let him wrap her in his arms for moment but pushed away from his nuzzled apology. He wasn’t forgiven and he was in no way forgiving her for whatever bullshit he thought she was doing wrong. This was all part of the same show she was slowly realizing she’d bought into for so long. It wasn’t about her. It was never about her.

Redmond didn’t let go right away but he let her back away towards the truck. If he had really cared about what she needed, if he really cared about her, impatience and frustration wouldn’t be rolling off him in waves. She wouldn’t be able to catch the faint bitter scent of deeply hidden resentment. The realization was startling and breath catching in an all too unpleasant way for her.

“I need you to understand Stacie. I’m not challenging you, I’m trying to do this the right way. But you keep pushing me away like this…”

It was a threat. Not an open one of course, not one that could be considered a challenge to her rule. But it was there, the current of danger threaded into his statement. A part of her wanted to push back just a little and ask him to continue his statement. Another, newer and much colder part of her wanted slam his angry sneering face into the ground and drink from the open wounds.

….That was definitely not her own feeling.

It was enough to shake her out of her shock at the truth of her situation. It was so savage, so feral, that it was literally a monstrous thought. Something she wouldn’t have considered even in wolf form but one that was oddly amusing and satisfying to think about. She bit her lip to keep from laughing because this wasn’t the time for levity and she didn’t think anything about the situation was really funny.

Stacie picked up a wrench, not because she planned to use it or work with it. It just felt familiar and comforting in her hand. The cold hard metal against her overheated skin, the weight of it as she held it in a loose fist, it was the only thing that felt real in the whole damned garage. She turned away from him and focused on the door pulley she had ripped down and kicked across the bay just a couple of days ago. It felt like months had passed since that moment.

“Listen to me Stacie.”

Me me me me. I. I. I. I. That’s seemed it was all he ever talked about.. It had been casual and by no means a relationship in the way he would have liked it to be but it still hurt to realize that every solicitous gesture, every laugh, every kiss, was motivated by the desire for power and not necessarily her. None of it, not a single word had ever really been about her, just a way to manipulate her. Anger flared anew but she kept it in check as she slipped the wrench into her back pocket and hefted the 500 pound spool of steel chain and pulley and moved them over to her work bench.

“I am listening to you Redmond. Very carefully. And I hear _exactly_ what you’re saying.” She barely turned her head to look at him. If she looked at him she might not be able to control the impulse to lash out. “Get out.”

There was just enough growl in the command to make him slink back toward the door. She could tell he wanted to say something but he wasn’t stupid enough to push his luck just then. Stacie waited for the door to click closed before she rested her hands on the work bench and stared unblinkingly at the wall. Now that she was alone emotion threatened to overwhelm her again and she had to work at holding it all back, afraid she’d get lost in it again with nothing to anchor her.

She wasn’t entirely sure how long she stood there, dazed and shell shocked before something plucked at the edges of her awareness. It wasn’t a physical thing, not a scent or a sound, nothing she could identify easily. But _something_ was coming. Stacie moved quickly to the front of garage and lifted the bay door by hand. Sunlight spilled in radiant and still bright for at least another hour yet. She stood there blinking in the sun trying to sense what was out there when the chainsaw like roar cut the air. Snowmobiles were common so it wasn’t something that would cause alarm but the speed of the engine let her know whoever was riding it was coming in fast.

That echo in her awareness rose in pitch and she knew. Aubrey. Stacie held the door up and open and stepped out as far as she could. It was far too soon to be her mate. There was no way a vampire could survive the trip from deep into the woods to town in daylight. She saw the smoke before she saw the snowmobile and rider, and Stacie was just in time to step back as the whole thing rocketed right into the garage. The wolf dropped the door and let it slam shut as she ran to Aubrey’s side, skidding to a stop on her knees.

The blonde was badly burned on more than half her face and both hands. Stacie winced at the dry crackling sound of ruined and seared flesh pulling away from the handle bars and gently lifted the vampire from the seat unsure what to do to help. It was stupid of Aubrey to come there. Stupid and so dangerous for the other woman. Stacie carefully brushed a lock of blonde hair away from the perfect and undamaged side of the vampire’s face. Aubrey’s cheek fell into her hand with a relieved sigh and the perfectly formed lips twitched in a pained smile, smug that she’d made it before she’d been consumed by fire.

“Aubrey…why?? Why the hell would you do this to yourself?”

“You needed me.”


	8. Chapter 8 - Aubrey

She was so close to her goal, if she could just get there before she passed out from pain everything would be okay. Fire blazed a trail down her neck as she banked a curve and zoomed through the snow. Aubrey dared lifting one hand from the handle bars to slap the tongue of flame out before it grew into something that would only go out once her corpse was dust. It wasn’t until she was cresting a ridge a few hundred feet from the edge of town that she realized she had absolutely no idea where to go. She’d left the cabin with only one thought in mind. Get to Stacie. She hadn’t at all factored in the idea that beyond the town of Gustavus she had no damned idea where Stacie was exactly.

Another throb of grief pulsed through her and she realized with sudden clarity that even if she had stopped to consider the fact that she didn’t know where Stacie lived, or her last name, or even her as a person… she’d still make the same stupidly reckless choice to run into the sun for her. Over and over again if necessary.

“Idiot.”

Aubrey could feel the burn in her flesh travel to parts of her body that weren’t exposed to the sun and knew if she didn’t find Stacie or cover in the next few minutes it would all be over anyway. Snow flew out from under the skis in a wide spray as she took a turn down a side road that was dotted with a few large commercial buildings. Instinct guided her forward and she ducked down against the handle bars as best she could but she could feel her skin blistering and peeling as it burned away. It hadn’t been quite as bad when she’d been able to use the trees as some marginal cover but here exposed in the full light…

It was agony.

Her eyes closed and the snowmobile bucked and swerved under her. It forced her to blink them back open even if she could only see through one. Something tugged inside, skating along her awareness in confusion. Stacie. The corners of her lips quirked briefly and she gripped the throttle tighter as she barreled down the street to a shop with the figure of a woman standing just before the large metal door, holding it aloft easily. _Stacie_. The vampire’s eyes drifted shut just as she passed the tall figure, the sled beneath her rocketing into the garage without slowing.

The impact of slamming into the heavy workbench and wall wouldn’t kill her, that would barely leave a twinge of sore muscle, but the burning… oh gods the burning. That was already killing her and the abrupt darkness of the garage as the door slammed down into place was only a minor relief. She slumped and slid off the side of the snowmobile just as careful arms lifted her. Fingertips grazed her temple and down her cheek in a gentle caress.

Aubrey tipped her head so that she could feel the soothing comfort of that warm soft skin on the only part of her that didn’t hurt. Stacie cradled her closer, head hovering over hers trying to assess how bad the damage was. Her voice cracked with distress when she finally spoke.

“Aubrey…why?? Why the hell would you do this to yourself?”

She tipped her head slightly so she could see Stacie better. She would have reached out to cup the woman’s face but her hands didn’t want to move right as the muscles and tendons tightened. The wolf whined softly and Aubrey raised a shoulder in a shrug.

“You needed me.”

Stacie’s dark head turned, flecks of gold blossoming in the green depths as her beast rose behind them. Aubrey’s fangs lengthened as her own demon surged up from the center of her being as they stared at each other. The tether between them vibrated with recognition and they both let out a soft sigh. The only thing she could think as the wolf stood and carried her through the door to the small office and up a staircase, was that she had never felt safer. Their gazes broke only when Stacie settled her carefully on the bed

“Now you need me, and I don’t think a little Solarcaine is gonna fix all this.”

The joking words weren’t enough to cover Stacie’s worried tone and Aubrey gave a slow nod. She would heal on her own of course. The darker the space the better, but she’d heal faster with blood and they both knew it. Stacie held up a wrist and Aubrey eyed it hungrily for a moment before she forced herself to focus on those golden wolf eyes.

“Are you okay?”

“You look like a charcoal briquette and you’re asking if I’m okay? Aubrey please…drink.”

She probably should have been offended by it but for some reason it made her chuckle, an action she immediately regretted when it twisted her face painfully. Stacie shifted closer with another strained whine.

“I can’t…I can’t have anyone else hurting because of me today. Okay? Please. Just feed already.”

There was something about the way Stacie’s voice broke that hurt Aubrey’s heart in new and inventive ways so she gave a slow nod. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to feed off the wolf. She very much wanted to have another taste of the brunette but concern made her hesitant. Sensing her reluctance, Stacie swept her hair over her shoulder and exposed the long line of her neck.

The strong and steady pulse fluttering beneath the skin drew all of Aubrey’s focus. Her dry tongue licked out over her lip and she didn’t think she could resist taking what was so freely being offered. Stacie relaxed into the bed as Aubrey closed the last few inches between them, her body sliding along the wolf’s as she bit down. There was the slightest bit of resistance before her fangs plunged past soft flesh and blood flowed into her mouth.

Aubrey’s eyes drifted shut at the smokey sweet flavor of Stacie’s blood then flew open at the electric jolt that came from the power in it. It sped through her system, wild and so fucking alive! Her jaws worked as she coaxed more blood to the surface, careful not to lose herself in the thrill of the feed. The vampire pulled back, tongue caressing over her bite lovingly. Warmth lit her body in a way the sun had not, tingling its way up through her body to the surface. Flesh that had been charred and crumbling began to regenerate and smooth in a ripple as it worked it’s way from her head to her hands. 

She tipped her head back and gasped at the sensation, her hands gripping the wolf and pulling her into Aubrey’s lap. Stacie shuddered and gasped when fangs sank back in again, the brunette’s body arcing up into the blonde. The cold of the grave rushed up from inside her and flowed out to meet the warmth of Stacie’s energy surrounding them. Her hands drifted down the lean body cradled against her chest, relearning the soft curves almost reverently. Stacie’s chest heaved as she panted with need and desire and it would be so easy to let the lure of blood and sex draw her past the line of feeding to heal. Aubrey struggled against the nearly overwhelming need to feel all of the wolf pressed along her body as the tall brunette stiffened in her arms far too close the the edge of bliss. She withdrew slowly and looked down into shimmering pools of amber and felt that now familiar tug on the bond between them.

Stacie reached up and cupped her face and she turned her head to nuzzle into it. As alarming as the thing between them should be Aubrey couldn’t bring herself to fight it. Gentle fingers traced the edge of sensitive new skin and trailed down the bridge of her nose making her sigh softly. Full lips curved into a wide smile and Aubrey found herself smiling in response.

“Hey there, gorgeous.” The smile on Stacie’s face faded as the throbbing hurt of grief squeezed through them again. “You shouldn’t have come…”

Well it was too late for that now, she was here because she had been needed, was needed still apparently. Aubrey’s lips fluttered against Stacie’s palm in a soft kiss before she shrugged a shoulder.

“Perhaps, but I’m here now regardless.”

“Why did you come here? You could have…”

Aubrey smiled gently and gave a slight shake of her head. “You know why.”

Stacie’s eyes softened and she nodded her agreement. Aubrey had come because Stacie had needed her and nothing, not her aunt, not the coven, not even the gods be damned sun was going to stop her. The brunette let out a breath quiet hum of understanding.

“How?” Her brow raised in question and Stacie brushed a thumb along her newly healed cheek. “How did you survive it?”

Oh. That. Aubrey gave a delicate snort of self deprecation. “Immunity borne of a weak blood.” She could easily read the confusion in Stacie’s face without the feel of it blossoming in her chest but the feeling of it, curious and unsure added layers to the minute twitches of muscle as she processed the vampire’s words. “My grandmother was pregnant when she was attacked by a savage vampire. She survived and bore my mother but the child was cursed. Not quite human enough to remain with her family and not nearly vampire enough to survive my birth. It’s her blood that gives me the barest immunity as you saw.”

“And you think that makes you _weak_?” The surprise in Stacie’s tone caught her off guard and she blinked. She was weak compared to her peers, not quite the full being that other born vampires were. Too weak to survive for long without the safety of a coven and her aunt’s protection. “I think it makes you one hell of a predator.”

“Flattery is only going to get you bitten.”

“Oh **yes** please.”

Aubrey chuckled at that and ran a hand through Stacie’s long hair, fingers combing through the dark tresses. They were dancing around whatever had brought her there in the first place but she was content for the moment to sit quietly. Stacie turned and curled into her chest and gave a heartbroken sob as the dam she had been so desperately holding up broke. Emotion rose and crested in her threatening to drown them in sorrow. She pushed her power through it, anchoring them both to the here and now with the steady weight of it.

“Wade…one of my pack, he was attacked and killed in Tongass last night. I didn’t protect him like I promised.”

Aubrey considered the simple statement and all that was unsaid in it. The guilt was palpable and she wasn’t sure how to help Stacie through it. She was responsible to the safety of none, but she understood the weight of it on Stacie’s shoulders. That the other woman felt so strongly about it said a lot about how she viewed the people she cared for.

“This wolf…your Wade. You take responsibility for him?”

“For all of them Aubrey. They’re all mine and I failed. I’m Alpha and I should have been with them, keeping them safe.”

Oh. It was so obvious and she didn’t know why she hadn’t realized it immediately. Of _course_ Stacie was an Alpha, all that power and the ability to shift at will made sense now. She gave a slow nod as she considered what could have harmed a wolf on the full moon. The list was remarkably short and the realization was slow to dawn but when it had she gave a regretful hum.

“Vampire?”

Stacie nodded from her spot still burrowed against her chest. Aubrey gently pried her free to cup the woman’s face in both of her hands. Stacie blinked mournfully up at her with tears threatening to fall. What could she say to this? Apologize? It hadn’t been her but were not all vampires one and the same for their thirst? They fed, that is what they did. How they lived, their very existence depended on it.

“The pack wants justice.”

Vampire against wolf? It would be a war that bled out all over the town and no one would be safe. Stacie gave a slight nod as the implication of it all sank in. It wasn’t going to make whatever was happening between them now any easier if both their families at war with one another.

“Is that why you think I should not have come?”

The wolf nodded then gave her a wry smirk. “Yeah that and the part where you flew in here with your head on fire.”

Aubrey opened her mouth and frowned. “I have an allergy to the sun!”

“So wear a helmet!” A hel… Aubrey’s mouth snapped shut if she had had the blood pressure she might have blushed. The idea of a helmet had never crossed her mind though it probably should have. Whatever expression was on her face made Stacie laugh and she pulled Aubrey down close with a warm hand cupping the back of her neck. Lips brushed delicately over hers with each hushed word. “I love you.”

It had come so effortlessly that it took both of them by surprise. She would have denied the truth of it but she _felt_ the echo of it deep in her soul. She knew it was true because she had never been loved before and this…this felt unlike anything she had ever known in all her six hundred odd years.

“You don’t even know me…”

“I knew you the moment you saved my life.”

The sun had never seared her so deeply as that one statement and she basked in the glow of it. Aubrey tightened her grip to bring Stacie up as she dropped her head. The wolf gave an approving growl and willingly exposed her neck. Aubrey pressed a cool kiss to her bite marks, lips grazing in a gentle caress. She hadn’t ever known love before but she knew that Stacie was hers and in turn she belonged to the wolf. And that was enough for her to know it was real.

She was so lost in the feeling of completeness, her lips nibbling and kissing her mark in pure adoration that she didn’t register another body in the room nor the deep hateful growl until a hard and heavy body impacted with hers, knocking her away from Stacie and of the edge of the bed. Shock at having her perfect bubble of bliss broken made her slow to react and the person on top of her took advantage by landing blow after devastating blow to her face. Rage rose fast in her chest when she felt the bridge of her nose crack and her lip split. The only thought she had in her mind was that someone had pulled her away from what was hers.

And now someone would die.


	9. Chapter 9 - Stacie

09.

“I love you”

She really hadn't meant to say it, didn't even know it was in her mind or heart to speak honestly. It started as a laughing commentary to Aubrey's slow wit but once it was out Stacie knew it was the truth. Painfully startling as it was she couldn't seem to find an argument against how she felt. Aubrey had dropped into her life and from one moment to the next everything had changed. The world was different now and not just for her, for the vampire too. She could see it in the way those gorgeous silver-gray eyes filled with the knowledge that she was being truthful.

The blonde's brow furrowed slightly as she processed the words still hanging between them. Stacie had been on her own a lot in her life but she had never really been lonely. Not the way lonely echoed through Aubrey like a mournful song. “You don't even know me...”

But that was the thing. She _did_ know Aubrey. “I knew you the moment you saved my life.” It was a mistake to have saved her life when she could have easily let Stacie die and gone about her business that evening. It likely would have been safer for the vampire had she let a stranger die but she hadn't. She'd come from nowhere and fought that disgusting thing, killing it before she herself succumbed to her wounds. Aubrey was different and Stacie knew it in the deepest recesses of her heart and spirit. She could even feel the way her words so foreign to the other woman, and yet were so desperately needed.

Arms tightened around her, pulling her closer and Stacie sighed happily as she tipped her head to the side. The thought that she might be just a little addicted to the feel of the vampire feeding and that it could become extremely dangerous flitted through her mind for a fraction of a second. But Aubrey didn't bite her as she had expected, or maybe even craved. Cool soft lips brushed over her bites in a delicate caress that made her toes curl. The tip of the blonde's nose grazed the length of her neck, and she nipped lightly at the corner of Stacie's jaw.

Aubrey didn't have to say I love you back because she could feel it in the way she was being held and the gentle, careful attention being paid to her marks. She knew it in the way Aubrey had twice now risked herself for Stacie. She didn't need to hear the words when she could feel the love in every reverent stroke and kiss. Aubrey's tongue lapped the edge of her bite in an intimate touch she felt the sense memory of between her legs. Stacie gasped and gripped the front of the other woman's jacket needing it to anchor her in the overwhelming feeling of being more than desired, more than just the blood and sex shared between them. She felt cherished in a way her mind couldn't fully grasp and she thought maybe it was because Aubrey had yet to understand it herself.

She was so completely rolled in a sensory overload that she hadn't noticed another person was there until a deep growl tore through the haze she was happily cocooned in. The solid weight of a long body knocked into them, pulling them apart forcefully. The shock of it made her slow to react, still too busy trying to process the image of Redd straddling Aubrey's chest as he landed punch after devastating punch to get her limbs to start working right away. Stacie scrambled to the edge of the bed ready to yank Redd back when she felt a shift in her connection to Aubrey. Cold fury slammed into her chest, sucking the air from her lungs with its intensity and physically staggering her back.

Redd raised his bloody fist to land another blow, his anger making him oblivious to death staring him in the face. She couldn't see Aubrey's expression but she could hear the hiss seconds before Redd's body was lifted and flung into the open closet doorway like a pillow. Aubrey stood in a move so fluid and quick that Stacie could only see a blur of motion before the vampire crouched, ready to leap in attack.

“Stop!!”

She honestly didn't know if she was saying it to Aubrey or Redd but the vampire froze just a fraction of a second before she would have pressed the advantage she had. Shoulders went slack, her posture lazy as the fight drained out of her from Stacie's plea. It should have ended things there, he should have stopped and realized that he was outmatched but Redd lunged out of the closet using all his weight to topple Aubrey back. She stumbled back under the force of impact, both of them crashing into the television mounted on the wall and cracking it.

It was all happening too quickly and she knew she had to stop it before someone got hurt. And by someone she meant Redd. He might still be full of the wolf from the night before but he wasn't going to be any real threat to a vampire that had just fed. The pair struggled across the room, each landing hits with blinding speed. Stacie managed to finally find her feet and closed the distance between herself and them. One hand reached out to grip Redd's shoulder to stop him from raising another hand to Aubrey but he shrugged her off, throwing an elbow back that caught her chin and made her see stars.

Son of a bitch! That _hurt_.

Aubrey let out a truly inhuman yowl, her rage beyond the point of reason and were it not for the nearness of the stair edge she might have twisted Redd's head right of his body in that moment. But her movement overbalanced them and they went down the stairs still locked together in combat. They tumbled down step after step and landed hard on the floor to her office. Stacie bounded down after them in two big leaps, finding Aubrey wrapped around Redd like a python, fangs bared and glistening.

She was barely aware of her people walking into the scene with alarmed bewilderment. Aubrey lashed out with a growling bite and the pack gasped collectively. Jealousy bloomed hot and sick in her chest and she tipped her head back for a challenging roar. Redd struggled for a moment but she knew all too well what it felt like when the blonde fed. Aubrey pulled back seconds after her bite and dropped Redd's slack body to the ground, she gave a snarl and spat out his blood with a sneer of absolute snobbery. And oh God it was so fucking hot.

Stacie gave herself a mental shake pushed her way between Aubrey and every other wolf crowding into the office. Cynthia Rose caught her eye from across the room and shook her head in disappointment. This didn't look good and she knew it. Growls rumbled menacingly as some of the pack tried to crowd around Redd protectively but he scuttled away from all of them panting as he tried to pull himself together. Without Redmond to protect the wolves turned their attention to Aubrey and started a slow advance.

The blonde tilted her head as she eyed everyone's position and slowly reached back to rest her hand lightly on the hilt of the weapon strapped to her back without a flicker of concern or fear. It was getting out of hand and if she didn't intercede a lot of people were going to die. Stacie pulled hard on the power of her wolf letting it rise to the surface and fill her body like a tub full of warm water. Not quite enough to spill over the edges, but full enough that a single drop more would cause a cascade.

It was not a warning that growled out from her chest with the force of her beast. It was a demand for submission and she pinned them all with a cold golden eyed stare until they backed away, glances dropping quickly. She wasn't happy at having been jarringly tugged into the present, or getting clocked and she sure as hell wasn't happy with Redd getting bitten. Having her pack defy her would be just too much to bear and she didn't think anything could stop her wolf from doing something terrible.

“This is all just a big misunderstanding so everyone just take a breath here...”

She was trying to soothe them, ease the tension enough to explain what was happening but her voice was still rough and full of gravel and Redd was having none of her conciliatory gesture. He pushed himself to his feet, knocking CR and one of the pack loners out of the way. His face was scarlet from exertion and embarrassment. She might have felt sorry for him if she weren't just barely containing the urge to lash out him with clawed hands and sharp teeth. Jealously rose again when she caught sight of the trail of blood at his neck and she had to look away. She could feel the shift in his posture and knew he thought she was backing down, maybe he even thought it was in shame. It was enough that he pushed on and immediately pointed at Aubrey with undiluted hatred.

“You gonna tell us I didn't walk in on that... _blood whore_...sucking you dry? Just like she tried to do to me??”

Aubrey rolled her eyes at that and gave a haughty derisive snort, it was clear she didn't think him worthy enough to actually drink even if she hadn't said a word. He swiped angrily at his neck and held up blood slicked fingers for the whole pack to see. She would have argued that it wasn't at all what Aubrey had been doing to her when he walked in on them but they could all see the fresh bites on her neck. That she wasn't being bitten at that exact moment mattered little when she willingly offered her blood to Aubrey moments before. Stacie didn't even try to hide it because she wasn't ashamed of Aubrey's marks on her. That wasn't her issue with his words at all. Her issue was with his use of the term 'blood whore' in reference to Aubrey. Her wolf surged pulling her forward a dangerous prowling step toward him.

“Apologize.”

“What?!”

The incredulity of the question made Stacie twitch, her lip curling back in a snarl as she took another step closer. There was a fine tremble in her body as she struggled against herself to contain the wolf-rage built up inside of her. She could see him calculating his odds before he squared his shoulders and faced her fully. The challenge in it was clear, he was going to stand his ground in front of the pack. Another drop of power hung precariously over the metaphorical tub of her control, trembling and full, ready to cause a flood of rage.

“I. Said. Apologize.”

“Fuck. You. I'm not apologizing to that fucking demon fo...”

There was no thought to her action, one moment she was standing there and the next she was on top of the other wolf, riding his body to the ground with a wild snarl for the second time that day. Wolves skittered back away from her in abject fear and the animal in her delighted in it. Good. Let them fucking fear her. Stacie roared out her feelings, one hand slamming Redd's head into the floor with two concussive thumps. She pulled the front of his shirt, lifting his body toward her and plunged forward with the intent to rip his throat out. How fucking dare he?!

Cold bands of steel wrapped around her, lifting her bodily from Redd and she barely registered that it was Aubrey until the other wolf was out of her reach and she found herself able to breathe. The unbreakable grip she was caught in shifted, one arm sliding across her chest in a soothing caress. The vampire's voice soft as a whisper, breath cool against her ear.

“Can the pack afford to lose another today?” She almost didn't care but for a quieter echo at the back of her mind asking gently. _Can you afford to lose them all now?_ It was exactly what would happen too if she attacked Redd and killed him but the logic of it wasn't quite enough to keep the low and constant growl from trickling out.

There was a nervous twittering shift of bodies in the room and Stacie let her gaze drift over them. They were confused, angry, and maybe...maybe she could see a little betrayed. The pack had just found Wade murdered by a vampire and here she was defending one that had bitten and fed on her, had bitten Redmond too. It was a lot to process and she knew it. Angus looked around at them all then jerked his chin at in Aubrey's direction.

“What's going on here, Stacie?”

He surprised her with the lack of challenge and aggression he normally showed but the distrust was clear. Stacie took a breath and relaxed into Aubrey's arms as she faced them. She supposed it was now or never, the pack had to know that things were going to be different now.

“She's my mate.”

There was a faint thump against her back that she registered as a single heartbeat from the vampire. The wolves surrounding them stared half in disbelieving shock the others in confusion as if this were all some disturbing joke. Redd growled and started forward but thought better of it when she lunged in Aubrey's grasp, straining to lash out at him. The vampire held her tighter still and he glared at them with the kind of hatred that made men into devils.

“That's a lie! She killed Wade and now she wants you!”

Stacie snarled but stopped struggling against Aubrey and shook her head. “No she didn't! She couldn't have because she was with me all night!”

More bodies shifted and the energy in the room rose to a near unbearable pitch. Cynthia Rose cleared her throat and kept her gaze from showing outright hostility. “Thought you said something bad was out there...but you were with her...”

“There _was_ something bad out there. If Aubrey hadn't intervened Wade wouldn't be the only body left in the snow.” There was a soft grumble as the words sank in. Some looked thoughtful and that was at least a start. She let her gaze rest on her Betas trying to read where they stood. It was hard to tell and she felt her confidence falter.

“You believe a revenant took your wolf from you?” Stacie turned her head to look over her shoulder at Aubrey. The vampire's face was blank of all emotion but there was something trebling through their connection that caused her to raise a brow questioningly when she nodded. “I must see the body.”

A roar of shouts burst suddenly from the group in protest. She didn't agree with them but she understood why they didn't want to allow Aubrey access to him. Wade's body was sacred, it needed tending and respect, not a cold impersonal inspection from a vampire no less. Stacie was stuck between a rock and a hard place and she was weighing her choices when Cynthia Rose whistled to get the attention of the assembled crowd.

“Stace?”

She knew they needed her to make a choice one way or the other right now. She sighed and pulled a little away from Aubrey so she could turn and meet a cold gray eyed gaze. It warmed and death bled away to the familiar pale jade of Aubrey's eyes.

“What do you need to inspect him for?”  
  
“The night we met I was tracking the creature. I believed it the last when I took its head...but if there are others I must find them and dispose of them quickly.”

“To bury the evidence of your feeds?” It was someone in the back, she couldn't see who exactly and couldn't place their voice but she didn't need to when there were agreeing nods around.

Aubrey straightened her spine and shrugged indolently as if it were the stupidest question she'd heard. “If I wanted to hide my feeding I wouldn't have chosen your wolf queen to mark.”

Another unsettled titter passed through them and Stacie frowned. “And if you find out it is a revenant bite? Then what?”

Seconds ticked by as Aubrey stared impassively at Stacie. “The infection can not be allowed to spread.” There was something in the clinical way she said it that made the tall brunette huff. Aubrey was holding back and she could feel it. Stacie glanced at her pack and then Aubrey and nodded slowly. They'd cross the 'what if' bridge when 'if' became a real thing.

“He's in the bed of the truck.”

They all looked toward the garage and a low mournful whine rose from multiple throats including her own. Aubrey moved gracefully into the garage and climbed into the bed of the truck. Several wolves surged forward to crowd around protectively, Angus among them. The blonde pulled the tarp back and her sharp eyes took in every detail of him before she leaned forward over the body. Angus snarled but Aubrey only sniffed delicately around Wade's head before frowning.

Her words came out respectfully soft and it took Stacie a moment to realize Aubrey was speaking to the pack, and specifically to Angus who had climbed into the bed with them and was holding Wade's hand.

“May I touch him?”

It confused Angus and the big man looked over to Stacie, unsure how to respond. She tipped her head gave a slight nod letting him know he could trust the woman. He blinked at her once then turned to the blonde and gave a gruff nod. She was careful, gentle even as she turned Wade's head and probed the bite with a fingertip judging it's depth and the damage caused before pulling the tarp back over his head. She seemed to sense that her presence so close to the body made them all uncomfortable and moved to lightly drop to the ground.

The pack sighed in relief and Stacie gave a soft grunt. “So what's the verdict?”

Aubrey looked troubled and she held her hand up. “Can you tell me what you smell? Your nose is more acute than mine. I...I have to be sure.”

The brunette brought the vampire's hand closer and sniffed delicately. The scent of decay was there, the same as before but...not. It confused Stacie and she sniffed again. “It's faint...flowery...what is that?”

Cynthia Rose nudged her way forward and gave Stacie a nod. “Lemme.”

Stacie stepped back as her Beta eyed Aubrey warily and sniffed at the blackened blood coating her fingertips. She growled and pulled back with a sneeze, arms crossed over her chest defensively. “Violets.”

The change was almost imperceptible. Just a tightening of the shoulders but Aubrey's eyes had gone distant and contemplative and she could feel something closing off between them. Stacie narrowed her eyes in suspicion and hummed softly. “That mean something to you?”

Now wasn't the time to hesitate, they had to show they trusted each other. To the pack and maybe to themselves. Stacie reached out and cupped Aubrey's jaw gently commanding her attention. The vampire's cheek filled her palm and Stacie smiled gently. It was a habit of the blonde's and one that made the wolf go soft every time. Aubrey sighed deeply and gave Stacie a look of honest regret.

“He is infected. If there were another way...” She hesitated and Stacie raised a brow. _His head._ The inhale was sharp as the words sunk into her brain.

“No. There has to be another way.”

The wolves started crowding in closer, Redd keeping his distance but unwilling to be left out entirely. Cynthia Rose looked between them wonderingly, a furrow appearing between her brows as she made of soft hrmpf sound. “Y'all mind telling the rest of us what other way you're talking about?”

Aubrey let her gaze drop before she faced the wolves. “Your friend....Wade, was attacked by a very sick vampire. An attack on a human from it would make a revenant from bite alone. It would become the type of creature that attacked your Alpha. It would have no feeling, no thought, no loyalty save to the nearest source of blood. The only thing they fear is the sun and their maker. They are faster, unreasoning, and strong. Stronger than most by far. Were it any other vampire bite I wouldn't worry but a sick vampire means we can not risk the contagion spreading. If Wade...”

“Don't fucking say his name!” Redd shoved someone out of his way and got in Aubrey's face. It was stupid really given how she'd already hurt him once and given how Stacie had acted at his insults but he wasn't thinking clearly. He was angry and jealous, wounded both physically and his oh so fragile ego. Stacie growled when he used his height to try and intimidate the blonde. “You don't ever get to speak his name, do you hear me?”

CR reached out to put a hand on his arm and tug him back but he shrugged it off and pointed right in Aubrey's face, centimeters from her nose. Aubrey's response was slow and drawling when she shifted her weight and subtly.

“If _he_ rises as a revenant there is no telling what power he will have or how virulent his bite may be. We could lose the town. The entire pack and eventually the coven. There would be total devastation. I have seen it once before in the 1500s. I believe colonists refer to the event as the Lost Colony of Roanoke. I was still young, barely two centuries, but I recall The Lady of the coven riding into the settlement with a few of her strongest warriors. Only she and another vampire survived.”

Colonists? The 1500s? TWO FUCKING CENTURIES?? It was on the tip of her tongue to ask exactly how old Aubrey was but she thought better of it, choosing to question that later in private when it wasn't so obvious that they didn't know anything about each other's history.

“How do we do that? Stop the spread?”

Aubrey pinned Stacie with a heavy look as she answered the dark skinned woman still watching them both with naked curiosity. “Burn the body to ash or take the head.”

It was direct, perfunctory even. A statement of fact but she held Stacie's gaze and the wolf could easily read the things unsaid between them. If there had been another way she wouldn't put them through that.

“It's too cold for a hot enough cremation in the wilderness. And enough planes and choppers fly over for the smoke to be noticeable. We can't ride around with him all the way to Juneau without everyone knowing our business. So that leaves one option, you wanna...do that. To his head.”

Aubrey broke and turned back to Cynthia Rose with a slight nod. “I don't want to. I regret deeply that it must be done but I won't risk any others. I will _not_ risk Stacie.” It was firm and sure and if anyone would have dared argue one look at Aubrey's set jaw would have silenced them.

The deep bass of Angus' somber voice made them all look over. “If you do this it saves a lot of people?” Aubrey nodded once and Angus looked to Stacie. “I hate it with every part of me but if you trust her I'll follow your lead.”

“Just like that?” It wasn't that she was questioning his loyalty to her. She knew he'd do what he said but Angus had always held some resentment toward Stacie, always pushing her limits and challenging her choices. Now he was too calm, too settled in the face so something violating to the pack.

The big man lowered his head and looked over at the truck one last time. He turned back sadly, shoulders hunched in pain. “Ain't gonna lose another of our people Stace. I don't trust vampires, not sure if I'll ever trust this one. But if she's your mate like you say then I trust at least that when it comes to you she's telling the truth.”

“She is. I saw one of those things...we can't let another one get loose.”

Redmond frowned and crossed arms belligerently over his chest. “And the source? How the fuck do we fight a sick vamp if one bite can make us like you?”

Aubrey's nostrils flared at the insult but gave him a leveling stare. “When I find the vampire that hurt your packmate I promise you I will see them suffer before I kill them myself. No matter who it may be.”

It was odd and Stacie canted her head slightly as she filtered through their connection trying to find whatever it was that Aubrey was omitting. Redd snorted and threw his hands up in the air as if that were just what he expected her to say and Stacie realized no matter what Aubrey had promised he wouldn't have believed her anyway.

“Right. Vampires take care of their own, you don't give a shit about justice for Wade or any of us. All you care about is covering your people and stealing what ain't yours to take. You're not one of us, you're never gonna be one of us!”

There were a few grumbles of assent but Stacie was surprised to note that there weren't that many. They were starting to listen, to see how Aubrey was, to see what Stacie saw when she looked at the other woman.

“No she isn't but she _is_ mine. My wolf chose her as equal. She is MY mate. You may not like it but I don't give two squirts of duck shit about what you like. The pack wanted me to mate? You're welcome. I'm mated.”

Someone in the group snickered softly but like before she couldn't tell where it had come from. Though she strongly suspected it came from the outlier that Redd had shoved aside earlier. He whirled to look for the culprit but Redmond found only blank stares watching him carefully. He was starting to walk a fine line and it was becoming obvious to the pack.

“You know you were supposed to breed...”

“No. See I don't think that was ever part of the original plan to keep me close. I think the pack would just be happy if I picked someone to build a life with. Something solid and real besides an easily abandoned garage. I think that last part is all you Redd, and you know what? If you're looking to breed pups you better find another tail to chase.”

There was a low rumble from behind her but Stacie didn't chance a glance over her shoulder. She didn't have to, she could feel Aubrey's power rolling out like a cold wave. Jealousy flared through their connection and she smiled at it. At least it wasn't a one sided feeling. Redd turned on a heel and started to storm out through the office door. He managed to get two steps before a lightening like flash resolved itself into the figure of Aubrey, her wickedly curved machete steadily pressed against Redd's neck.

Stacie hadn't really seen her move, hadn't even sensed the shift in air pressure until Aubrey had passed her. Everyone froze and waited with baited breath, Redmond barely chancing a gulp as if he was afraid even the slightest pressure would part the skin under the sharp blade. The tall brunette reached out and rested a hand on the vampire's arm slowly pushing it away from Redd.

“Let him go, I'm done with him here.”

The weapon held steady, fully extended in Aubrey's expert grasp, her voice dark with intent even as her eyes glowed the soft amber of Stacie's wolf.

“I'll be seeing you again. Very soon, dog.”

“We'll settle this under the blood moon. You're not going to be so tough against a wolf then.”

He snarled but backed away from the blade slowly before pushing his way out of the office. Aubrey watched him go for a moment before she sheathed her blade and turned back to her mate. Patiently waiting for her decision and not at all concerned about having threatened one of the pack.

“Do what you have to. “

Aubrey nodded and glanced at the clock on the wall. “Tonight long after the sun falls and the town sleeps. It will be easier to take him to a place to rest.”

She nodded and rubbed her hands over her face. “Fine. Everyone just get the fuck out. Please. I promise I will explain everything. But for now just give me some room, yeah?”

Angus gave a nod and started herding the wolves toward the door as Cynthia Rose rocked on her heels before them and gave a slow nod. “I think this mating is legit. I saw them eyes. Those were wolf eyes not vampire ones.”

Stacie nodded to confirm it and Aubrey gave a surprised hum as she processed it. “Yeah. And I've had hers flash in mine. Figured it's a side of effect of the mating.”

CR gave a non committal grunt. “Maybe. We gonna talk about this soon, Stacie. You, me, the pack. I'll be your ride or die but not if you shut me out, you hearing me?”

Despite the hardness in the words she knew it wasn't a challenge for Alpha but a reminder that she had a responsibility and she respected her Beta for it all the more. Stacie nodded and reached out to rest a hand on the woman's shoulder. CR made a soft tsk sound and pulled her into a tight hug. When she pulled away from the hug Cynthia Rose gave Aubrey one last pondering glance then before nodding at something only she knew. Aubrey dipped her head once in an acknowledgement of whatever had just passed between them. It was such a tentative start but at least there were people willing to listen, to see the truth.

Stacie waited until the last wolf had left and the door clicked shut with finality. She moved forward quickly and flipped the sign over before twisting the lock and removing the key. Aubrey hadn't moved and she was glad because she had so much to say and so much to ask... but her instinct won out over such trivial things and she lunged at the blonde pushing her against the side of the desk. Stacie let her hands drop to Aubrey's hips and she lifted her easily, bringing their lips together in a heated and possessive kiss. Stacie pulled back with a growl taking Aubrey's lip between her teeth roughly.

“You don't get to put your fangs in any wolf but me.”

The vampire snarled at that and ran her fingertips down Stacie's spine in a warm and heavy caress. Her own arousal flaring at the rough possessiveness. “What's the matter, you don't want to share your little boyfriend? Are you jealous?”

“You're goddamn right I am. You're mine, he doesn't get to enjoy any part of you.”

Their lips crashed together again even as their hands struggled to divest each other of the layers of clothes between them. Jealousy was new, it hadn't been a thing she'd ever experienced before, always intentionally moving to keep attachments to a minimum. But the idea of anyone's hands on her mate made simple jealousy seem like a mild sunburn compared to flare molten heat and fresh rage in her chest and Aubrey could sense the echo of it in their connection.

“As long as you're not enjoying any part of _him_ on the side. You're mine and I don't share.”

The kiss that consumed them was a desperate fight for dominance, each claiming the other as clothes peeled away from them. The possessive demand in Aubrey's words igniting the powder keg of lust already burning her from within.

“Long as we're on the same page.”

“If we were on the same page you'd be inside me already...”

Stacie's lips curved in a devilishly amused grin as she slid a hand up Aubrey's thigh. Fingers stroked through folds already slicked with need and she growled deeply. Aubrey's head fell back at the swift and deep thrust that filled her, fangs lengthening as she gasped.

“Y-yep, you're definitely on the right page now...”

Stacie chuckled against Aubrey's smooth neck and she nipped lightly. Impossible as it seemed, she had found home at last. Wherever they were together she was home.


	10. Chapter 10 - Aubrey

“So tell me again how much of an old lady you are.”

Aubrey chuckled and raised her head from Stacie's chest to look her mate in the eye. She knew eventually they would get around to her age, especially after the look Stacie had given her earlier. She just didn't think it would be at the first quiet lull in their lovemaking. A pale shoulder rolled in a slight shrug of dismissal.

“Six hundred and thirty two by my count.”

“By your count? What, no one else knows how old you are?”

She put her head back down and brought a hand up to trace around the other woman's nipple. There was something decidedly addicting to the feel of being this close to the wolf. Skin to skin with nothing between them but the things left unsaid. A hand combed through her hair and she smiled against the warm, soft swell of Stacie's breast.

“My aunt. She's never quite gotten over having to bury her twin brother.”

The body under her stilled for a moment before Stacie brought a hand to her chin and lifted her head so they could see one another. There was a wealth of questions in those green eyes and Aubrey didn't know where to begin answering any of them. There was just so much to her past that it would take six lifetimes to tell. She let her head tip to the side so she could nuzzle the warm palm that was cupping her face so tenderly.

“When a vampire chooses another as a mate they give over a part of themselves to the bond between them. Losing one in death causes pain so great it drives the surviving mate to madness. It's why bonds to mortal beings are considered...déclassé among our kind.” Aubrey's lip curled slightly as she thought of what they would say about her newly claimed mate. “Alain, my father, was to lead our coven but when my mother died, he was found unfit. Tante Amélie became the Lady of our house and he was buried with his shame _like the blood traitor he is_.”

Stacie's eyes widened at the last and she sighed with a shrug. The arm around her waist tightened and she was pulled in closer to the warmth of the wolf's body. A calloused hand trailed down her back and palmed her ass in a solid and oddly reassuring grip that made her melt bonelessly into the brunette. Aubrey sighed blissfully as peace and comfort lapped at the edges of her connection soothing the parts of her she never realized were hurt.

“Is that what you really think of him?” She was quiet a moment, considering her next words carefully when Stacie's low voice burred out. “You don't have to answer that. It's personal and we...just met. I would get it if you want to keep it to yourself.”

Seconds ticked by but Stacie didn't probe any further and Aubrey realized that she had nothing to gain by holding on to it. And only the shame and pain of it to lose in the telling of it all. They were so close she could count the flecks of amber in her mate's eyes and she felt the words tumble free before she had the thought to speak them.

“It's the one thing she is sure to remind me of at least once a year. My birth cursed him to the indignity of the grave.”

Stacie's eyes darkened at the echo of guilty loneliness that rebounded through their connection. A quiet rumble of unease trickled out and Aubrey shushed her with a soft kiss. Those were the burdens of a day long past and she wasn't looking to go back. Not now when she had so much life to actually live. The vampire nudged at her mate's nose with her own.

“Couldn't they do anything else besides bury him?”

She could see all the different possibilities bloom in her Stacie's eyes and she smiled sadly. There was no hospital or home for vampires afflicted by madness or disease. There was only true and final death or the casket, the latter of which she considered worse than death. To be insane and entombed, hearing the world grow and never being able to taste the life pulsing around you, only feeling unending, blinding anguish and loss...

Aubrey cut off the tide of panic that was starting to rise. She had suffered a lot under Tante Amélie's rule but that was a torture that would break her, it was better not to think on it at all. Stacie brushed a thumb over her cheek, the touch so soft and delicate it robbed her of the ability to speak. It was silly that something so simple could affect her so profoundly but the tenderness in the gesture resonated with the love Stacie felt for her.

“Is that going to happen to you too. If I...you know?”

She didn't say anything and understanding slowly filled Stacie's eyes with sorrow. One day perhaps, in the future so far distant she couldn't see it clearly enough to worry about. But she didn't intend to suffer for long, Aubrey would walk right into the sun before she ever let someone stick her in a coffin.

“Is there any real reason you have to go back?”

Aubrey chuckled at that and shifted her weight so that she was raised on her hands hovering inches above Stacie. Long legs hooked around her, keeping their bodies pressed tightly together. It was hard to remember a good reason to go back when everything she cared about was right there in her arms. But like Stacie she had responsibilities, ones that were suddenly all the more important now that she had more information.

“For starters...my in-laws hate me.” She couldn't blame them, she wasn't a wolf so how could they trust her. It was the only thing she and the _boyfriend_ were in agreement about. Aubrey barely resisted the urge to sneeze the scent of him out, her nose wrinkling with the effort of it. “And as much as it pains me to say, I live to serve my coven and the whims of The Lady.”

“The Lady sounds like a real bitch face.” It was so irreverent that it pulled a startled laugh out of the vampire. Stacie's smile was bright but the words were a quiet plea. “Stay with me.”

 _Please stay_. Aubrey swallowed hard because if she thought too long about it, she wouldn't leave Stacie's side for the rest of their lives. And she couldn't think about that because it was dangerous for both of them.

“I want to, but I can't.” Stacie's brows raised in question and she sighed. “I meant what I said. I serve the coven and right now they need me to figure out who among us is creating revenants so the culprit can be dealt with before anyone else gets hurt.”

“Is that the only thing you do for the coven?” She knew what was being asked of her. It was a fair question if uncomfortable. Aubrey lowered her body down and nuzzled Stacie's chest. “Is it because of your bite?”

She didn't want to look up so she stayed, content to be held with her ear pressed over Stacie's heart. The beat of it a steady and reassuring. Strong and constant like the wolf herself. “It's a unique gift that can be used in many ways to the advantage of the coven. A small war could keep us fed, a negotiation of borders could afford us more land, a small bite in trade for a fortune of benefits.”

Stacie stopped breathing and the vampire turned her head to chance a glance up. She was being watched carefully so she shrugged and made a vague gesture with her hand to dismiss it. Her hand was caught in a warm grip and brought to Stacie's lips for butterfly kisses across her knuckles.

“You don't bend a knee to anyone now. You're mine and my mate has no master.” It wasn't an idle wish or pretty words to soothe a broken heart. It was a promise she could feel race through their connection with burning heat. Here, with Stacie, her value had nothing to do with what her bite could earn. It was freeing and almost too good to be true. Aubrey frowned trying to find the lie or trap in it, still tentative to trust what her instincts were telling her. “Stay with me, with us.”

“She'll kill us both...”

“She'll try.”

“Stacie...”

“Please don't leave me.”

How could she say no to that? How could she pull herself away when everything inside of her craved everything that Stacie was? How could she leave the only person that had ever asked her to stay?

“Your pack is going to hate it.”

“Hm maybe. But I have no doubt the pack will come to trust and love you like I do Aubrey. In time. Probably.” They both laughed softly at that, the animosity of the pack the least of their various worries. “I'm more concerned about whatever you've been holding back since you caught that scent on Wade.”

She froze, eyes still locked with Stacie's. It was a lot and there were things she still wasn't sure of so she didn't quite know how to explain it all. Or if she should explain any of it, this was vampire business after all. But if she didn't tell, would Stacie ever really trust her? Could she blame her if she didn't?

Nothing but the feeling of quiet calm drifted between their connection, there was no ulterior motive in the statement. Stacie didn't want to use her for anything. Aubrey blinked at the realization and gave a thoughtful hum as she came to a decision. If it was the coven or the pack she only had one choice to make. Whatever business it was of the coven it now involved the pack. They deserved to know and they deserved to hear it from her. If she was going to be Stacie's, and the pack's, it was going to start now, with the truth.

“How good is your nose, Puppy?”

Stacie growled under her making her smile widely. The strong arms around her tightened and her world shifted as she was bucked and rolled. It was a position she didn't mind in the least, not with all that delicious warmth enveloping her. The wolf settled her weight, hips fitting between her legs as if she were always meant to be there.

“Call me puppy again and you're not gonna like it...”

“Oh?” Aubrey tipped her head to the side, watching green eyes bleed to that beautiful honey gold she loved so much. “And if I do? What are you going to do about it?”

It was playing with fire and she knew it but the idea that she might get burned was too alluring to pass up. Stacie's full lips curved into a grin and she nipped hard at Aubrey's shoulder. It wasn't hard enough to break the skin but the feel of those sharp teeth raking over her flesh was rough enough to bring her body up in desperate roll against the other woman.

“You're trying to distract me, Aubrey.”

“Not my fault you're easily distracted by me.”

Another rough nip to her other shoulder caused a shiver to skate down her spine. Stacie nudged the vampire's chin up with her nose and nuzzled in with all the soft tenderness her earlier bites had lacked. Aubrey was safe with her, would always be safe with her, no matter how rough or feral they may provoke each other into being.

“I don't think it's any secret here that I want you. Constantly.”

Aubrey trailed her hands up Stacie's smooth back feeling the play of muscles twitching just under the surface as the wolf ground her hips down into her. Fangs lengthened in response and she rose up to meet the slow maddening undulations. It would be so easy to get lost in all of this and it would be glorious but it wouldn't solve any of their problems.

“Of that I am quite certain.” The vampire lifted her head and nibbled lightly along the curve of Stacie's jaw to her ear when she could whisper near silently. On the other hand...mixing a little bit of business with painful pleasure couldn't be a bad thing right? “ _Puppy_.”

She knew what would happen, Stacie had warned her that it would, and yet she had been most unprepared for the bite that followed. Maybe because she was too busy laughing at the growl to take the warning in it seriously. And maybe a little bit because she wanted to be bitten. Teeth sunk into the flesh of her shoulder and her laugh turned into a squeal of pained pleasure, her legs tightening around Stacie's hips.

“I thought you said I wouldn't like it...”

Stacie snarled down at her with her chin smeared with Aubrey's own blood and she rose up, long tongue swiping over it teasingly. Her mate growled again, bringing them together in a hungry, dominant kiss that Aubrey gave over to with a hum of appreciation. Oh yes, she very much enjoyed pulling this side out of the wolf. Her hands fisted in the thick soft waves of Stacie's hair pulling her back as the kiss broke. Amber eyes glowed softly then faded to a cold silver that was all too familiar to the vampire. She hadn't intended that to happen but now that she was faced with the depth of their bond the last wary hesitation fell away. Her fingers traced along the strong brow and straight nose in a delicate touch. Stacie's head tipped to the side, her tongue licking out along Aubrey's lip teasingly.

The wolf nipped at her chin and collarbone before dragging her tongue along the bite she'd made. Aubrey hissed and rocked her hips up searching for more contact and pressure. Stacie bit at the shoulder again, nipping and kissing with the rumble of a growl purring her chest. It took her a few moments of getting lost in sensation before she realized that Stacie had stilled and lay with her nose pressed to Aubrey's shoulder breathing carefully.

“Why do I smell violets, Aubrey?”

The wolf raised her head and pinned her mate with a questioning look. Stacie knew she wasn't the one that killed her pack mate, of course she did, but her scent was on his body. There was a connection there and the Alpha was demanding an explanation as a leader not a mate. Whatever vampire had killed Wade hadn't just been from the coven. They had been _family_.

“Because it's a mark of my blood line.”


	11. Chapter 11 - Stacie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your kind words. Thank you for those that read and say nothing but do drop kudos. Thank you for those that read and reread even if you never say a word or send kudos. Thank you for those that even bothered to give it a chance.

Stacie was careful not to react with the sudden rush of anger at the news. It wasn’t Aubrey’s fault, she knew that, and really she hadn’t blamed her in the least. But it was information that could have been shared sooner. Something she felt she should have known as soon as Aubrey realized there was tangible proof of who had taken Wade from them. The blonde waited patiently for Stacie to say or do something making her realize she hadn’t even blinked.

“Why didn’t you tell me you knew who did it?”

“Because I do not know who did it and I didn’t think you would appreciate the news at the moment I learned of it, considering the attendance of your pack.”

She let out a sigh and nodded. That was fair, the timing had been wrong and after… The wolf rolled her hips in a slow grind against the woman under her, smiling at the way Aubrey rose to meet her. But they really couldn’t afford to keep distracting each other while talking about serious things. Stacie slid to the side and propped her head up on a fist.

“But you have suspicions.”

Aubrey rolled to face her and nodded slowly. A slight furrow wrinkled the vampire’s brow as she considered all the possibilities. “There are three of my blood here. Myself, my father, and my aunt but it can be none of us.”

Stacie wasn’t so sure about that. She trusted Aubrey but she couldn’t extend that trust to other vampires. One dark brow came up in question and she reached out to take Aubrey’s hand and place it against her chest.

“Aubrey if you think you know who it is please…”

“I don’t. I swear it can’t be us. This type of illness can only come from a vampire that was made by bite not one that was born. None of us were bitten.”

Stacie’s eyes dropped to the bite she’d made on Aubrey’s shoulder, the edges were already starting to knit together where it had been shallow. She dipped her head, leaning forward and brushed butterfly light kisses over to buy herself some thinking time. She believed Aubrey without question but she didn’t understand enough of vampire culture and lore to know how this could even happen.

“So how is this possible?”

Aubrey hesitated and brought her hands up to cup Stacie’s face. She guided the wolf up until they were nose to nose again. It was clear that the vampire was making a conscious effort to be completely honest with her mate and Stacie respected it. Admired the courage and boldness of it even though it was giving up a lot of tightly held secrets.

“It would be possible if we had sired a vampire but…I swear Stacie, we don’t have any bitten vampires in our line. There haven’t been for as long as I have been alive and then some.” Stacie bumped her forehead lightly against Aubrey’s in acceptance of what the blonde was saying. Still. There were questions. The vampire traced her jaw lightly with a delicate touch as she worked through all the other possibilities. “If there _is_ a bitten vampire it would have be either very old, or very new. Though how I could have missed someone turning a human…”

Stacie had to smile at the way confusion made Aubrey’s nose crinkle just a little. It was fucking adorable and she raised her head enough to be able to kiss the bridge of her mate’s nose. Okay so this new information narrowed down the chasm of unknowns they were facing. She rolled to her back and stared up at the constellations carefully painted on her ceiling. It had taken her weeks to create the perfect night sky canopy and while the Sistine it was not, it gave her a sense of peace and wonder that helped her puzzle out heavy thoughts.

“So let’s take age out of the equation here. If there was going to be a bitten vamp from your line it could only come from one of three people. One in a box.”

“One in your bed.”

“And one with everything to lose.”

Aubrey flopped onto her back with the weight of that final revelation. She suspected that the vampire had already considered this option but was hesitant to accept it. It couldn’t be easy for her, working through all this and having to choose sides. Stacie herself had never stayed anywhere long enough to really have a place or people she could call hers. Aubrey had had six hundred years with the same fucked up family…but family they were. You didn’t just shrug that off for a stranger.

The vampire sat up and slipped from the bed. Stacie scooted herself up and arranged the pillows against her headboard so she could watch as Aubrey picked up her flannel and slipped it on without bothering to button it. The way she brought the collar to her nose and closed her eyes as she took in Stacie’s scent let the wolf know it wasn’t because Aubrey was cold. She needed a distraction and some space to process but not enough space from Stacie that she couldn’t surround herself in her mate’s scent and warmth.

Stacie laid there, content to watch Aubrey pad over to the shelves of books on the wall. Curious fingers stroking along the spines as she read them. A small smile playing over her features when she found a particular title amusing or familiar. She moved on to the record player and modest collection of vinyl albums shelved on a couple of planks separated by cinder blocks. The vampire pushed the power button on the turntable and moved on to flip through the records as music spilled out of speakers.

Aubrey slowed her perusal and glanced at the record player, her head tipped to one side as she listened. Her body swaying gently to the sounds of Jenny Lewis singing for Rilo Kiley. Stacie sat up and gestured to the turn table.

“It’s a band called Rilo Kiley…”

“Under the Blacklight. I know it.” Her smile was a slow surprised tug of her lips as Aubrey picked up the words and harmonized perfectly. “I saw them once. In California at the Greek Theatre. Good food, good music. It was quite memorable.”

Stacie’s eyes widened at that and she felt herself flop back against the pillows with a grunt. What were the odds that she’d meet someone more than six hundred years her senior with the same taste in music? Of course ‘good food’ probably meant concert goers Aubrey had eaten which was an even odder counterpoint to the revelation. The soft chuckle of amazement grew into an outright laugh when Aubrey found her closet and one of Redd’s shirts still hanging in it. The vampire picked it up with a pinch of two fingers and padded silently to the trashcan where she deposited it with a territorial and savage smirk.

Aubrey dusted her hands off on Stacie’s shirt and moved around the loft humming along as she inspected and touched everything. She stopped at the smashed television barely hanging on by the cord and frowned. The vampire picked it up and carefully mounted it back on the wall bracket. The screen was shattered in a spiderweb of cracks and the act of putting it back up was pointless because she’d need a new one anyway but it was sweet that Aubrey clearly felt badly about breaking it. The blonde stood back with a final adjustment to make it perfectly level with a satisified nod of her head.

Her mate turned and bounded to the bed, pouncing on her almost playfully. Stacie laughed and rolled trying to pin Aubrey to the bed. But just a hint of movement from across the room was enough and the flat screen fell right off the wall mount, scraping the wall all the way down and snapping the cord as it landed face down on the floor with a sad jangling crash. Aubrey froze and turned wide apologetic eyes on Stacie, her mouth working as she tried to find words adequate enough to express her horrified embarrassment.

“I..I’m so sorry…”

It was utterly fucking hilarious and she barked out a laugh before nuzzling into Aubrey’s neck. “Forget it, it’s the least of my worries. You’re ridiculously cute by the way and I think I should kiss you now.”

“Oh. Well if you think you should, you’re the Alpha.”

Stacie gave another chuckle that died away and gentled into a smile when she pulled back enough to look down at Aubrey’s mildly amused face. Impossible, improbable and highly unlikely as this love might be, it was there, growing and deepening with each passing moment they shared. She didn’t lean into the kiss so much as sink into Aubrey, her body fitting against her mate, all their curves meeting and hugging in all the right places. The blonde pulled back after a few moments leaving Stacie breathless and weak.

“I **will** find the vampire responsible, Stacie. I promise you that. Even if that trail leads me right to Amélie’s feet. Just please understand, I don’t do it lightly. If my aunt has caused all of this the coven will be upended. Her leadership could be contested and a new Lord or Lady may make things worse.”

There was a hesitation that Stacie didn’t understand and she pushed her nose under Aubrey’s jaw in a comforting nuzzle. She didn’t feel any sort of deception in the way her mate was holding back, just the faint feeling of sadness echoing through their connection.

“I am not well liked and only a deep fear of Tante Amélie has kept me from my final death many times. If I burn this bridge, I burn the whole bridge to cinders for I can never go back after. If your pack doesn’t accept me…I will have no home, no coven, no family…”

“You have me.” It wasn’t enough. She knew that. One person couldn’t be a replacement for a whole social support system. Even as she said the words she knew it would never be enough for what Aubrey was willing to give up. There was a beat of silence between them, the vampire’s eyes shimmering and shifting until they settled to a serene pale green. “You’ll always have me, Aubrey.”

“Then I have everything.”

The connection between them pulsed and tightened, binding them even closer. They’d give anything for each other without question or thought. Without a hint of hesitation. Aubrey raised her hand and Stacie took it, fingers lacing together comfortably. A perfect fit like everything else about them.

“So how do we do this?” How did they figure this whole mess out? “Do we just confront her outright?”

“No.” The single word spoke volumes and Aubrey shook her head as much to clear her mind as to show she was against the idea of that. “There is a reason she survived a nest of revenants when others did not. Amélie is a fearsome fighter and one of the eldest. Direct confrontation would be death.”

“So what do we do?”

Aubrey bit her lip as she thought things through. There were so many layers she didn’t even know where to begin pulling them back. Stacie was more of a direct confrontation type of girl, she didn’t really get the intricacies of politics and intrigue. A fact that she had only recently come to realize was costing her a connection to her pack and her tenuous hold over it.

“We would need to convince the coven that is _possible_ for her to have sired a vampire that is now ill. It is no secret that I have been tracking the revenants so there is some credibility to stand on. But our proof…”

“Is non existent. How do you prove a scent long gone?”

It was impossible and Stacie was starting to feel the weight of the task ahead of them. If they couldn’t prove anything then all they were managing to do was put targets on their backs, and the backs of every one in Gustavus. Potentially, it could all blow up in their faces.

“Maybe…we don’t. If we can create enough doubt it will push some of the elders to call for a test of bloodlines. A judge, usually the best of our trackers, would be selected and all the vampires, pure and bitten would be bled. A simple but crude way to see if our family has been keeping secrets.” Aubrey gave a soft hum, her hand squeezing Stacie’s lightly. “But I wouldn’t trust any vampire selected judge. There is too great a chance that Tante could bribe their silence or worse, one of the others could buy lies. It would be too easy to frame another for a centuries dead grudge, of which there are many.”

“What about an impartial one? Would they trust the nose of a wolf?”

Maybe. There was a shot, if they could get the vampires to trust them enough to sniff out the culprit. But if they did then it would definitely lead to Aubrey’s aunt and after that she didn’t know what would happen. Would the vampires handle it themselves? Would any of this free Aubrey from her obligation to her coven or get Wade justice?

“Any wolf? No. A wolf queen? Perhaps. But we alone can’t walk into the catacombs. We’ll be slaughtered. We need the strength of your pack behind us, preferably furry.”

Which required them to trust Aubrey. The air rushed out of her lungs and she weighed the consequences of going in without a pack at her back. A few would come but not enough and it would be a massacre. And could they buy enough time for the full moon to have a show of force? Aubrey nudged her gently onto her back and tucked her body along the length of Stacie’s side.

“You think your coven is going to wait until the next full moon?”

“Vampires don’t agree to anything quickly. They will take some time to decide to meet, I have no fear we can negotiate for a full moon parley. I worry though that your pack…”

“Our pack.”

Aubrey stayed silent at her immediate correction but dipped her head in surprised thoughtfulness. Stacie frowned at the way the vampire seemed to squirm under her gaze and she tucked a finger under the blonde’s chin to lift it gently.

“They’ll never accept me Stacie. Not as your mate, not as your equal. There is nothing I can do to make it otherwise because I will always be the parasite in their midst. Nothing more than a tick to be tolerated, it is a role I am quite accustomed to.”

The wolf in her raged at the injustice of Aubrey’s words because she knew there was a possibility they could be true. But Stacie had faith in something more than just their relationship. Something had brought them together, then, at that juncture in time. A bond unlike anything before it for either species because she and Aubrey were different, anomalies even for their kind, that had to mean something. Power roared through her and tumbled down their connection to fill Aubrey with the warmth of her wolf.

“You’re my mate, _my_ chosen. It won’t be easy but I trust them to see you as I do. You just have to play by their rules.” Aubrey’s lip curled and she let out a low warble of a snarl. Stacie kind of liked the rebellious streak and chuckled with a slight shake of her head. “I know. Rules are the pits and I’m not gonna lie, what we’ve got to do is gonna suck.”

Aubrey perked up at that and nipped at the swell of Stacie’s breast. “I’m good at that.”

“Baby…you’re the **best** at that.” Her whole body clenched at the memory of Aubrey’s fangs sinking into the flesh high up on her inner thigh as she fed. “But I’m serious. They’re gonna force a mating hunt on the blood moon because even I can’t fight the shift the first night.”

“The first night?”

“The effects of the blood moon last three nights for us.” The tiny furrow of concentration pulled between Aubrey’s brows then smoothed away as if it had never been. Stacie’s brow came up in question. “What'cha thinking there, Machiavelli?”

Aubrey blinked at her and made a face. “He wishes.”

Stacie opened her mouth to say something then closed it with a click not quite sure which question she was dying to know first. Did that response imply that she had known him, or that…she currently knew him? Too many mind boggling questions were suddenly crowding her brain making it hard to think past the fact that her forever girl was really fucking old.

“I think I would like to know more of this mating hunt before I share my thoughts. If…if that is alright with you?”

Fair enough. Stacie smiled and wrapped her arms around the blonde trying to mentally prepare for explaining a wolf hunt like that. It was one of those things she’d always hated about pack law and the fact that she was going to have to do what she’d had never agreed with was giving her a little anxiety. A cool hand smoothed over her collarbone, fingers stroking gently. It was comforting and helped her slow the sudden racing of her heart.

“Mating hunts are what packs do to ensure that the strongest of us survive. In a female’s case we run as far and as fast as we can to the deepest parts of the woods. When the moon rises all the eligible wolves, mostly males, shift and track us. They hunt and fight among themselves until someone gets the girl.” She said it with as much dispassion as she could muster but truthfully the whole thing made her sick. There were no choices in mating hunts, there was only instinct and the brutality of nature. There was no control! “After that the urge to mate is impossible to ignore. The pack has to honor the rules of the hunt, the winner is mate.”

Silence filled the space around them before Aubrey spoke quietly. “Do you have no say in the matter?” Stacie didn’t say anything and she felt Aubrey’s understanding slow nod. “And I assume I would have to hunt with all the other would be suitors, leaving me alone against who knows how many vampire hating werewolves. Oh that’s _IS_ going to suck.”

If Aubrey didn’t make it…if anything happened to Aubrey…it was all very risky. They could lose everything with a gamble like this. Was it really worth the risk of a wolf getting to her before Aubrey did? And if Aubrey made it…could Stacie force a shift?

“It’s a lot…”

“I’ll be there.”

“Aubrey, things could go wrong. You cou…”

Aubrey’s thumb traced her bottom lip in a soft caress. “Nothing will stop me from getting to you. I am your vampire but you are _my_ wolf. We chose each other in a world where we are given none to make. I dare someone to take it from us now.”

Her heart fluttered at the slow shuddered beat from Aubrey’s chest. As irregular and sluggish as it beat, she knew that beat was all for her. Stacie brought their lips together in a deep kiss, needing to share the desperate, consuming fire in her heart. Maybe it wasn’t a perfect plan but they had something more than they did an hour ago. And if they pulled it off…

Aubrey nipped at her chin and pinned her to the bed, hunger rising and flooding their bond. Stacie gasped and gripped the sheets tightly in her fists as teeth found a home in her neck. If they pulled this off, no one would dare challenge their union or their choices again.

_It could be a new world order…_

She wasn’t sure which of them thought it or if it even mattered. This was their life now and they would rule it as they saw fit.


	12. Chapter 12 - Aubrey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the people patiently waiting and always dropping encouragement.

Aubrey glanced over at Stacie then let her eyes drift over the rest of the wolves piled in the bed of the truck. Behind them were other trucks and SUVs similarly filled with the entire pack. They were all watching her warily as if they were afraid that at any moment she might come for their blood. It made her own unease rise, wondering which would lose control of themselves first and preemptively attack her. In the tight confines of the bed of the moving truck her options would be limited. Stacie's warm hand closed over hers with a gentle squeeze as their fingers laced together. Tactically speaking it was a nightmare for her because it prevented her from being able to draw her weapon.

Though, that was likely the point wasn't it? And really if Stacie wanted to hold her hand, who was Aubrey to refuse?

The vampire glanced down at their hands then brought her eyes up to meet Stacie's gaze as they bumped along the uneven ground to Wade's resting place. The tension that had been growing tight in her shoulders eased when the brunette brought her face closer to nudge at Aubrey's nose with her own. Her lips tugged in a slight smile at the gesture and she leaned into Stacie's side. The wolves around them settled somewhat, letting their eyes drift away from Aubrey and out at the deep darkness of the forest around them.

Stacie's tired smile widened a little as they moved along. It hadn't occurred to Aubrey before but now, watching the small ticks and twitches in the fine muscles of Stacie's face made her realize that her mate was very aware of every movement and sighed breath from her wolves. Aubrey brought a hand up to smooth a fingertip over a furrowed brow. She was being protected. The vampire wasn't entirely sure how she felt about it, but she knew that Stacie would stand between her and any wolf that dared to attack.

Protection for her had been rare and always obligatory with a stern and demanding reminder. But this...this was nothing like that. Nothing with Stacie was like anything she had ever known before.

It wasn't a long ride, but silence and her deep thoughts made it seem like hours had passed before they finally arrived. The wolves with them eased out of the back and waited with outstretched arms for Stacie and Angus to carefully place Wade in them. She was last to leave the bed of the truck, choosing to stay to the outside as the pack arranged themselves around their Alpha.

Every wolf had come, even those Stacie had explained liked to keep to themselves, to say goodbye to their brother. There was the expected heaviness in the air and even the teenagers and younger children's faces were a mask of grim wariness, the curiosity dulled by the solemn business at hand. Someone had tucked the tarp around the Wade's body on the ground, but the wind kicked up, tugging a corner of it free and an arm fell heavily to the snow. Her focus went to it with a sharp cut of her gaze.

No one else seemed to notice the sudden slack as rigor released its frozen hold on the body. Aubrey tried to think back through the last few days as Stacie's voice rose and fell with heartfelt emotion. Had he died two days ago or one? Was it too soon for rigor mortis to have cycled through? Was it different for lycanthropes? She stared at the pale hand a moment longer but a tug on her connection brought her gaze up to meet her mate's.

“What happened to Wade won't go unanswered for. Aubrey and I are setting up a meeting, our pack with the coven to get answers. We're still working out the details but we _will_ get justice for our friend and brother.”

All eyes turned to Aubrey and she faced them with the same cool mask of indifference she'd worn for six hundred years.

A few of them, Stacie's Betas and some that had been at the garage earlier, they looked at her with intensity but it wasn't necessarily the same hostility she was facing from the others. Or the hostility that came from the _boyfriend_. They didn't want her there and she could feel it like an invisible wall pushing her further and further away from their acceptance.

His eyes bored into her and if looks could kill she knew she would be suffering a terrible death right then. Somehow the knowledge of that was oddly comforting and she raised a pale amused brow making his scowl deeper. She wasn't any less bothered by his existence than he was of hers but getting under his skin made this whole thing a little bit better. Stacie held out a hand and she took it without thought, allowing herself to be pulled forward into the group of wolves and the circle of Stacie's arms.

“You really expect any of us to trust a vampire when one of our own is laying here dead because of her?”

It surprisingly hadn't come from Redd, but she wasn't so easily fooled to believe that the words themselves hadn't come from the man. The woman that had said them didn't push herself to the front of the group as others had previously, she spoke from the safety of numbers. And the way she was clearly fighting the urge to look at Redd gave Aubrey all the confirmation that she needed. She was wondering exactly how long it would be before he spoke for himself.

Aubrey could feel the tremor of tension in Stacie's body pressed against her back and patted the arm around her waist lightly. They had been expecting opposition and they had guessed it would happen that night so they were well prepared for it. Stacie's voice came out strained with the effort of holding in her growl when she addressed the woman and the group as a whole.

“First, Aubrey had nothing to do with what happened to Wade. Second, that you trust me and my judgment should be enough for all of you.”

“Well...it's not. Your judgment is a little fucked considering the way you put your neck out for a vampire.” Well that hadn't taken long as long as she thought it would. Mortal creatures were just so damned impatient sometimes. Stacie sighed softly, the rumble of a growl threatening to break loose rose and Aubrey sunk further into the warmth of her mate's body. The wolf eased off and bumped at Aubrey's temple lightly with her nose. “See that? That right there is what I'm talking about. She's got some sick control over you.”

“She what?”

“C'mon Stacie...I know what it felt like, the bite...it does things to you.”

Stacie's arms dropped from around her and she missed the warmth immediately. The wolf took a step forward and Redd took one back. It made Aubrey smile to see him giving up ground so easily. Redd wasn't just impatient; he was also not as sure of himself as he wanted to be. They were weaknesses that would make him a predictable adversary and she filed it away for later.

“Are you seriously implying that Aubrey is somehow controlling me through what? Her bite?” A scoffing snort mocked him openly.

It wasn't the utterly ridiculous notion that Stacie was making it out to be. Her bite could and had been used to control people in the past and if she stayed with the coven under her Aunt's rule it would likely be used again. But she had no desire to make Stacie do anything she didn't want to do. Aubrey had led more than a few lifetimes being made to do things at someone else's demand, she could never put her wolf through that.

“I know what it feels like Stacie, don't fucking act like it's not...” He made a vague gesture at Aubrey and she raised her brows at it. “A man could get addicted to somethin' like that...you could...”

It was too much, and Aubrey made a dismissive gesture. “Yes. A _man_ could. It's sex, not heroin. Don't be bitter that I'm better at it than you.”

The broad-shouldered man's face turned scarlet as a few people coughed, one or two snickered and one person wheezed quietly. It was a soft gasping breath that was more shock than amusement. It felt out of place in the moment and Aubrey turned her head toward the sound. Her eyes widened as the figure sat up, back erect and straight. Wade turned his head toward the group and blinked once, his pale face slack and uncomprehending for the span between heartbeats.

And then its hunger kicked in.

The creature that was once Wade settled into a crouch and scuttled with jerky, stilted movements toward the nearest living body which happened to be Stacie's. The wolf was too slow to turn, too distracted by Redd's argument to notice what was coming right for them. The weight of his body knocked them both to the ground and it was all Aubrey could do to get her arms around him to keep his teeth as far from Stacie as she could manage. It wasn't easy and his naked body left her nothing to grab on to for better grip. 

Vaguely she could sense movement around her. Feet hustling quickly as they could on the slick icy terrain away from their thrashing and rolling. She had never wrestled an alligator before, but she assumed it must be much the same as trying to wrestle a revenant wolf. They rolled again, the creature trying to get back to Stacie as desperately as it was trying to shake her off its back.

Stacie growled and flung her jacket off as she got her feet under her. She could feel the shift rising in her mate even though she couldn't see it happening. The revenant finally gave up trying to get to food in order to deal with the vampire and she suddenly found herself struggling against the full focus and strength of the former wolf. Her hold was slipping and the creature was able to twist just enough in her grip to lash out. The pain was swift and sharp where claws dug into her shoulder to rip her free of his back.

There was an instant moment of fear that it would rear its head back and strike at her for a bite and that she wouldn't be able to stop it from happening but then she was airborne. Her body tumbled through the air in an uncontrolled spin that ended when she collided headfirst with the heavy steel door of one of the trucks. It slid in the snow, groaning with the impact as it rocked on its wheels. Her ears were ringing as she used the truck to get help her get to her feet. Aubrey stared at the head sized dent in the metal and grunted in anger.

Screams were starting to filter through the high-pitched whine, and she shook off the cobwebs to focus on where the revenant had gone. Aubrey managed all of two steps before she could fully understand what she was seeing, thinking for a moment that she must have hit her head harder the she suspected. _Two_ large wolves were dragging the revenant away from a handful of people all sliding and scrambling to get back to the illusion of safety the cars provided. Two. Someone had been keeping secrets from the pack apparently. The thing that was Wade kicked free of the wolves, sending one skidding into a tree, the other yelping in pain as it got its hands on the great furred body and started to drag it closer.

The wolf fought hard, clawing its body and snapping at the revenant's face to keep it too busy to pick off members of the pack. A deep growl of anger tugged at her connection as she realized Stacie was the one caught in the creature’s grip. Wild anger filled wolf energy rose up in her making her spine bow with the strength of it. Her head tipped back, and an enraged roar tore its way out of her throat. Aubrey felt the familiar shift of power as her fangs lengthened and she launched herself forward with blinding speed.

There were few options left now and little time left to ponder them. Aubrey’s hand went up, her fingers closing around the hardwood handle of her machete. It slid free of the sheath, a weightless extension of her own arm. She could take his head, had planned to previously even, but the effect on the pack would be devastating. Those that weren’t terrified into cowering were sick with shock as it was and the impact of such a violent end…

She stopped thinking about it and focused on one thing as she made the split-second choice to spare them all from what she could.

 ** _MOVE_**.

It was impossible to tell if Stacie had sensed her intention or had actually heard her, but she squirmed out of Wade’s grip seconds before Aubrey’s machete pierced the flesh of the revenants back. The blade caught on bone and she had to wrap her free arm around its body, cradling him to her chest as she forced the weapon to pierce through the heart.

Any other sword or knife wouldn’t do much to give a revenant or any vampire pause but her weapon was special. Aubrey had forged the modified kukri-machete herself, spending long hours hand carving the hardwood plugs that fit in the carefully placed holes in the cheek of the blade. She had used lignum vitae, the tree of life, because it was particularly corrosive to vampires. A chest wound like this was effectively staking her enemy and ending the fight.

The vampire gasped and looked over his shoulder, eyes wide with confusion. Aubrey held on tighter, backing away with Wade before the burn could begin. Disorientation and fear filled the marble black eyes and for that moment she knew Wade the man. He had been innocent and loyal, and Stacie had loved him. It rebounded through their connection and her eyes softened when a soft whine escaped him.

“I’m so sorry…”

It threw its head back in a wordless scream as the burning in its chest grew until the whole body caught fire. She should have let go and stepped back. She should have let the flash of fire consume and extinguish leaving nothing but ash and smoke. But she couldn’t let him die afraid and alone. So she held fast, the flames licking up her own body before the fragile cast of the man crumbled and blew away in the wind. The bright intensity of heat burned even after it had gone out leaving Aubrey deafened by the last roar of the fire.

She dropped to her knees in the snow and teetered dangerously. Stacie raced forward, skidding to a stop at Aubrey’s side. Her mate knelt next to her, quickly smothering the few remaining flames with what was left of her shirt. The vampire looked at the hand still tightly wrapped around the hardwood handle of her machete and worked her fingers to flex and drop it. Stacie cupped her face and Aubrey could see her lips moving but couldn’t hear the words right away.

“Aubrey…Aubrey can you hear me? Bree? Are you okay??”

The blonde vampire gave a slow nod and slowly let herself tip into Stacie’s warm arms. Okay might be a bit of an overstatement but she couldn’t say what exactly was bothering her more. The look on Wade’s face when she’d killed him or her raw and singed flesh. When she was certain that Aubrey wasn’t still burning Stacie tipped her head back and let out a long mournful howl. Around them the stunned and wary wolves followed. Each of them sending off the spirit of their packmate with a heartbroken song.

A furred body pushed through the pack limping toward them. Aubrey sat up as the wolf song died down to the last note and gestured with a glance to the animal. Stacie gave a soft acknowledging growl but addressed the group around them.

“Now will you listen? Now do you see that Aubrey is with us? Is that not enough for you?”


	13. Chapter 13 - Stacie

“Now will you listen? Now do you see that Aubrey is with us? Is that not enough for you?”

No one said anything and Stacie shook her head. Unbelievable. Unfuckingbelievable. She sighed and looked down at Aubrey’s reddened face. At least it wasn’t as bad as the last time. This was more like a really harsh sunburn that was already slowly fading. She brought her hand up to trace the line of the vampire’s jaw delicately. Her brow furrowed at the twitch of muscle in her mate’s cheek at the touch. Stacie gave a soft whine and Aubrey smiled at her.

“It doesn’t hurt.” Stacie raised a brow and Aubrey shrugged a shoulder. “Just a sting.”

She gave a slight nod and raised her head to focus on the soft crunch of paws on snow. A growl tickled at the back of her throat, but she tightened her control on her emotions and let out a calming breath. When Wade had risen as a revenant she had been blindsided and it had cost her precious time in shifting. Her pack would be sitting ducks against a creature with the speed and strength of a revenant and she had shifted as quickly as she could hoping that she and Aubrey alone could put the monster down.

And for a minute she thought they would do just that. Take the creature down and put it out of its misery. But then Aubrey went flying and Stacie found herself with her paws full trying to keep herself between that _thing_ and the rest of her pack. She couldn’t think of it as Wade, it wasn’t her friend, it wasn’t a part of her pack. So, she focused on anything but his face hoping that her mate would shake it off and get back in the game.

She was so preoccupied with keeping fangs out of her flesh that she hadn’t noticed another wolf had shifted out of phase until it had leapt on the monster’s back in full furred glory. There was no time to sit and take it all in, there was no time to turn and count the faces around them trying to figure out who was missing in human form. And really, she didn’t need to. Stacie knew who it was without sight or thought.

And now that she was confronted with him face to face, she realized that it couldn’t be anyone but Redmond. He lowered his head in a shallow nod of acknowledgement, but his chest puffed out with pride. He had played this one close, keeping it secret, hoping to take them all off guard at just the right moment. The worst part about the whole thing was that it had worked out perfectly for him.

Showing the ability to shift like that was proving himself equal to Stacie, equal enough to be Alpha. And she couldn’t even take it as a personal challenge because he had shifted then for the good of the pack. To protect their people.

_Clever bastard._

Aubrey gave a soft hmm of agreement before sitting up in Stacie’s arms. Cynthia Rose wedged her way through the bodies and dropped a mismatched pile of clothes on the ground at her feet. Her Beta gave Aubrey a considering look then nodded once and held out a hand to help the blonde up. Her mate gave her a questioning look and Stacie raised her shoulder in a half shrug. The vampire was wary, but she extended her still singed hand. Half the pack gave a small gasp of surprise and stepped back when Aubrey rose without much help from CR in a single fluid movement.

Stacie looked at the clothes and grunted when only her tank top had survived her shift and a pair of jeans that were a little too loose in the waist to be her own. She slipped the clothes on quickly and stood at Aubrey’s side. She wasn’t entirely sure where the pack stood just now, everything had happened so quickly and it was so much to take in, but they really didn’t have the time to stop and digest it all. If she waited for them all to get their heads around everything that was happening it would only give Redd more time to gain support to try and take the pack from her.

“I think you all understand now that what we are dealing with is bigger than vengeance for our brother. Right?”

Most of them nodded their heads and a few grunted. CR crossed her arms over her chest and boldly stepped back and to the right, falling into her usual place at Stacie’s side. It was a show of support they needed and was deeply appreciated. Evan, one of her lone wolves eased out of the darkness and gave Aubrey a wide berth before stepping forward to speak.

“There’s more out there. Jessa an’ me clocked at least two during the fight. Just watchin’ us.” He shuddered with the effort of raising his head and meeting Aubrey’s pale silvered gaze. “Friends of yours?”

There was no point in trying to find the vampires now. It was too dark even for them and really, they didn’t need another fight tonight. Aubrey gave a short nod as if she had expected that all along and probably she did. Her mate gazed down at her machete and slid it into the sheath at her back. It made a few of the wolves release a tightly held breath, the weapon just that much more of a threat to make them more uneasy than they already were.

“Vampires, yes. Friends, no.”

Someone gave an amused snort and she heard a murmur of a joke that vampires didn’t have friends. Stacie’s gaze cut across all of them daring someone to say something else. Aubrey stroked a hand down her arm soothingly and squared her shoulders.

“They came for me, it’s good that they saw what has happened. The Lady of the coven will need to address this now that it was witnessed.” The blonde didn’t shrink away from the rise of voices, she stood quietly imposing until the noise died down again. Stacie felt her heart squeeze in her chest when Aubrey let the demon in her fade and faced the pack as vulnerable and real as she could be, showing them the same soft compassion she had shown Wade moments earlier. “They already know that good men can be made into revenants, now they know that good wolves can rise too. I would not have wished this end for Wade…”

A low and deep growl carried on the wind and Redd lunged forward in attack. She should have expected it from him but had stupidly believed that for right now petty squabbles were put aside. Stacie turned with a shift already racing to the surface when Aubrey swung a pale fist in a blinding upper cut that lifted the huge wolf off all four feet with the impact.

Redd hit the ground and rolled a few times. He raised his head and shook it, trying to get his legs under him to stand. Aubrey watched him warily, taking a few steps back closer to Stacie. Cynthia Rose nudged her with an elbow, clearing her throat and Stacie schooled her features, suddenly realizing that she must have been smiling with too much giddy anticipation. The wolf stayed where he was but the growl was a constant warning to Aubrey.

There was a near imperceptible shift in the pack and Stacie sniffed lightly at the air trying to figure out what it was. It was still tense, but the _something_ was different. Aubrey seemed to notice it too, the fingers on her left hand twitched slightly the only outward sign of her insecurity. Angus uncrossed his arms from his chest and jerked his chin at her. His low voice was slow and deep as he spoke but everyone assembled could hear him just fine.

“Earlier you said you’d have to take Wade’s head. Why didn’t you?”

The blonde tipped her head to the side as she eyed him curiously. It was hard to understand what Aubrey was feeling, there were just too many things coming through the connection for Stacie to process.

“When I said that he hadn’t yet risen. After…his rising was traumatic enough.”

A few of the wolves looked at each other, communicating with shared glances rather than words. Angus took a step forward, it wasn’t an aggressive move, it was more like getting closer might help him somehow understand the enigma before him.

“And the end? You held on. Why would you do that?”

Stacie a step closer to her mate and reached out to take her hand. Aubrey glanced down at it and gave a small squeeze of acknowledgment. It didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the pack. The vampire raised one shoulder in a slight shrug. Stacie had known why she held on, she had known why the moment the decision was made and Aubrey had gripped Wade tighter.

“Because she didn’t want him to die alone.” Aubrey didn’t confirm it, but she didn’t have to. Angus nodded slowly as he took all that information in and processed it. “It doesn’t matter that other vampires were here. Let them see the truth for themselves. It only makes our position stronger when we meet with them.”

Redd barked and pawed at the ground to get her attention. He seemed to be stuck in his shift leaving him unable to speak. Something she was profoundly grateful for and maybe more than a little amused by. Stacie’s lip curled back when he took a few steps closer and stood brazenly before them. The wolf gave a determined huff and took another step forward but was stopped by Cynthia Rose’s solid figure blocking the way.

“Listen up. I get that some of you don’t trust us. You think that because she’s not a wolf she’s not strong enough or fast enough to be my mate. You might even think that all I need is another wolf strong enough to tame me. Maybe one strong enough to shift outside of the moon.”

All eyes went to Redd and she snorted at the idea. Stacie brought Aubrey’s hand to her lips and kissed it. Her mate gave her a brief smile and nodded.

“Maybe you’re right. We’ll find out on the blood moon. You all wanted a mating hunt, you’ve got one.”

She had never wanted it to get to this point. Stacie had valued her freedom and had hoped that maybe the pack would just accept her as she was, or just accept who she chose for a mate. But she could see now that it was never going to be that way. They needed the familiarity of ritual and the old ways to feel settled and sure because at the end of the day…Stacie was just as much of an outsider as Aubrey. She wasn’t from around there and she didn’t have a home or people to call her own. She had no roots. How could she expect them to think of her as anything but a stray when everything about her screamed lone wolf? So it had to be like this and she understood that. Accepted it even. But it was going to be on her terms from this point forward.

No one raised a question and several of them visibly relaxed in the face of her dominance. It was what they had been waiting for from her. Stacie looked over the pack and gave a solid nod, for once they were all on the same page. She gave the scorched snow a lingering look, giving herself a second to say goodbye to her friend. Stacie took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Aubrey would finish the hunt, they’d end the revenant threat, get justice for Wade and the pack damn well better fall in line.

“Let’s get out of here.”

She climbed into the back of the truck, holding out a hand for Aubrey to take. Cool fingers wrapped around her hers and she tugged. The vampire was practically weightless as she leapt into the bed and settled on the edge. Cynthia Rose clambered in next to them, shoulder to shoulder with Aubrey. The vampire blinked in surprise but gave a shallow dip of her head that CR returned. Bodies piled in around them, crowding the small space with more people than had come with them on the trip out. A sharp yip brought their attention to the back and Redd jumped in with a disgruntled growl at having to wedge into the corner.

Aubrey raised a brow, her voice amused and unconcerned. “Hope you learned more than one new trick, Rover. You’ll need more than that if you think you’re getting your girl back.”

God, she loved that woman.


	14. Chapter 14 - Aubrey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I know. It’s been forevah. In my defense I was working on that Linchpin collab and I just lost all track of time. Anyway. Here is this thing. If you’re still reading along, biggest thank yous.

A beam of sunlight splashed over a tanned forearm as Stacie leaned over the engine of the car. The front bay door was pulled up leaving a narrow swath of shadow in the corner across the end of the work bench where Aubrey perched; leaned back against the wall one leather clad leg hanging down just watching her mate work. The wolf had offered to lower the door, but Aubrey declined and settled on the worktop with curiosity bright in her eyes. Despite her natural resistance to the sun she had never found a reason to be up during the full light of day before.

But watching the sun play over Stacie’s smooth skin, lighting her dark hair in multi-tonal highlights gave her a new appreciation for daylight living. Her mate gave a soft growl of annoyance at something Aubrey couldn’t see from her spot. Those growls were becoming more frequent and much easier to rise to the surface as more time passed with no word from the coven. The wolves were getting impatient, especially Stacie who had been dealing with controlling the pack perceptions of what was actually happening. Stacie’s growl deepened and she turned and flung a long-handled screwdriver across the room.

Aubrey watched and lazily reached up to pluck it out of midair before it could sink into the wall of the garage. She placed it down on the workbench alongside the other various wrenches, screwdrivers and pliers that had been chucked in frustration earlier that day.

“Goddamn fucking shitball stupid engine!”

Stacie slammed the hood down and kicked at the front end of the Jeep making it skid back a few inches despite the wheel blocks tucked behind the tires. Rage roared through her like a forest fire and she frowned at the depth of it. The blonde vampire pushed a little of her own deep pool of calm through their shared connection, a hint of a smile tugging her lips at the sigh of relief from the other woman. Gold flecked green eyes rose to meet hers and the bond between them pulsed with affection.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Sorry, just a little cranky. The moon is rising soon.”

Aubrey gave a slow understanding nod. It wasn’t just waiting for the coven to agree to meet. There was the mating hunt weighing on the brunette’s mind. She could feel Stacie’s reluctance to proceed with the plan even though it was already set in motion. There was a lingering guilt that tinged their connection every time they spoke of it. She didn’t understand it honestly, this wasn’t something thrust upon them. They had chosen this path together and in choosing it they changed what it would mean to them, and to the pack.

“Are you worried I won’t make it?”

Stacie said nothing and Aubrey nodded a bit at that. She slid off the tabletop, sticking close to the wall as she edged out as far as the safety of shadow would let her. It was still too far from Stacie for her liking but close enough for the wolf to focus all her attention on her. The other woman sighed softly and looked away.

“I’m worried that Redd or one of his buddies won’t play by the rules. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Well I’m already dead so they can’t do much damage there.” Stacie gave her an unamused look and Aubrey shrugged. “Okay, I see your concern. However, as I understand things, there are no real rules to a mating hunt, save no weapons. The goal is to get to you first, by whatever strength or strategy at my disposal.”

“Yeah but this isn’t you against humans, Bree. They’re strong wolves and they’ll be drunk on all that power from the blood moon. Redd has a lot riding on this hunt, he’ll do anything and everything he can to stop you and…if something happens to you…”

She wasn’t taking it lightly at all. She understood the consequence of losing, she just had no intention of letting anyone get in her way. Stacie rested her hands on the hood of the Jeep and leaned heavily as the weight of all her worry bore down on her. Aubrey started to speak, to reassure her but Stacie’s raw voice stopped her.

“If something happened to you, nothing would matter Aubrey. Not the pack, not the coven, not even all the innocent humans that’d get caught in the middle of a war. There would be nothing left inside of me to care.” Stacie dropped her gaze and let out a pained sigh. It was clear that she was struggling to find the right words to explain why she was still fighting the idea of a hunt. “For my entire adult life, I couldn’t imagine ever loving anyone, now…I can’t imagine not loving you. I can’t lose you now that I’ve found you, okay?”

The slow sluggish beat of her heart stuttered in her chest. Nothing in this world was certain, not even a final surrender to a peaceful death. She couldn’t promise Stacie anything and they both knew it. Aubrey took a step forward, but the wolf pushed off the truck and moved out of the direct sun, blocking the light from hitting Aubrey. The care in the gesture made her smile and she tugged the other woman closer with a finger hooked into the belt loop of her jeans.

Stacie wrapped her arms around Aubrey’s waist and the vampire nuzzled into her mate’s neck to take in her scent. She slid her hands under the hem of the other woman’s shirt to stroke the smooth soft skin of her lower back. They stood in silence, each contemplating a life without the other. This was the only real home that Aubrey understood, even if home was just a shadowy corner in a dusty garage. Home was anywhere Stacie was.

“I know he will try his hardest, and I am very aware of the strength your wolves will possess that night. But believe me when I say I have no intention of making it easy for them. I have survived more than six hundred years with a nest of enemies. I think I’ll survive one night with my furry in-laws.”

A laugh bubbled up and the arms around her waist tightened. “I’m being serious, Bree.”

“So am I.” She pulled back enough to catch Stacie’s still worried gaze. “I can do this Stacie, I can meet them as an equal and if they will not respect me, then they will fear me. But I’m not giving up and I’m **not** going to lose.”

Aubrey’s eyes flashed silver as her power flared and Stacie bit her lip in response. Stacie wanted to believe; she could feel it in the anticipatory tension humming through their connection. “Not sure that’s how families work, love.”

“In my experience, that is _exactly_ how families work.”

Stacie’s back stiffened and she whirled around to face the owner of the quietly amused tone. He wasn’t a vampire but the scent of them clung to him from centuries in their company. Aubrey molded herself to her mate’s back, arms wrapped around her to hold her steady and soothe back the rumble already forming in the brunette’s chest.

“Easy, he’s here from the coven.”

Erasmus tipped his head to one side, evaluating them both for long minutes before he stepped into the shop and let his curious gaze wander over the interior. Stacie huffed and reached out to tug the chain that raised and lowered the bay door. The cold metal links rattled as the other woman quickly dropped the metal door down to give them a measure of privacy from any passersby.

“So, this is where you’ve been hiding, quite unlike you Aubrey.”

She gave a slight nod at that and eased out from behind Stacie, nudging her mate gently behind her. The brunette ran her hand down Aubrey’s back in gentle caress, showing her support without ever having to say a word. Erasmus watched them with interest then smiled something soft and bittersweet. They had never been close exactly, she and Erasmus. But they had understood each other, respected one another, even cared about what would happen to the other.

“I have never felt more myself than I do here, with the pack.”

He raised a dark brow at that but didn’t comment. He didn’t have to; she knew it was a surprising statement. Their difference in interior design wasn’t the only thing he was referring to and she knew it. However distrustful the pack may be toward her, they were still more of a home and family to her than her own people and her own blood relation.

“You know why I have been sent?”

“Yes, I sensed the scouts in the woods that night. I assumed that they were only too eager to report back to my aunt all that they had seen.” The question was, did they report back everything or just the parts that painted Aubrey in the worst light possible? She crossed her arms over her chest already anticipating how this would play out.

“Indeed. Luca and Katya, Nisha and Udaya, and of course Massimo.”

Just hearing his name irritated her and Stacie gave a soft growl behind her when she picked up on Aubrey’s annoyance. But it was to be expected, he was her aunt’s most loyal ally and he above all would have enjoyed dragging Aubrey back to the cabin to suffer Tante Amélie’s wrath. It was the same with Luca and Katya, they had been her torturers for as long as she could remember. They were vicious and brutal on a good day and she had no hopes that they would not have told the coven that Aubrey was a blood traitor. But Nisha and Udaya…that was interesting.

“Night and Day? The twins never leave the cabin…”

He hummed softly in agreement and clasped his hands gracefully behind his back. “Nisha had a vision and they volunteered. The Lady could hardly refuse in front of the coven. It was surprising for us all.”

They hadn’t been allies in any way but Nisha and Udaya had not been her enemies either. It was curious and she frowned slightly wondering what exactly this vision was. “And what news did they bring home?”

“That the threat of revenants is real. That the pack mourns one of their own. That wolves can be turned revenant too…”

Stacie’s growl was a deep bass that rattled the thin metal door of the garage bay. It was a wound that wouldn’t heal any time soon and Aubrey reached a hand back to lace fingers with her. Erasmus watched it all with that same sad smile as if he understood things she had yet to figure out.

“And what else?”

“According to Luca, that you have turned against your kind. Udaya, however, claims you were doing your duty to our coven by dealing with the new revenant threat. Surprising support on your behalf. More so surprising that Massimo agreed.”

There was a trap in the words that she could feel but could not yet see. Massimo did nothing without cause, and she wondered what game he was playing at now. Stacie’s warm hand squeezed hers in a gentle reminder that she was there with her.

“Then they know how important it is to find the source of the infection.”

He gave a curt nod at that. “Yes. She wants you home so that we may deal with this as a family.”

“No offense but your family isn’t doing dick to solve the problem and now the pack is at risk. Wade’s blood is on your coven’s hands.” Stacie pushed forward, her anger riding the air like a cresting wave. “I demand justice for our people, and if I don’t get it willingly then…”

It was skirting a line with the threat and Aubrey sighed softly. Erasmus gave a quiet grunt that could have been agreement or offense. The tall man took a breath and closed his eyes, head lowered as if in deep thought. When he raised it again and opened his eyes, a dull silver ringed the normally deep brown eyes. Aubrey took a step back, tugging Stacie with her and dropped to a knee.

“My Lady…”

“Rise, niece.” It was Erasmus’ voice but the clipped tone was all her aunt and it echoed weirdly in the closed garage. She stood slowly, ignoring the confused and questioning look she was getting from her mate as Erasmus circled them both with a sway in his hips like he was balanced on heels rather than soft leather loafers. “So. This must be the girl.”

Aubrey said nothing, it was wiser not to give more information than absolutely necessary. “She speaks for the pack.”

“Then I suppose it is a good thing you defied my order to kill her.” She could feel Stacie turn her head to look at her, but Aubrey didn’t dare turn away from Erasmus. There was no telling what her aunt could control while wearing his body like an expensive suit. “So. We have a problem, do we not? Revenant wolves cannot be suffered to live.”

“And yet the source remains hidden.” Her jaw clenched tightly at the implication that wolves were the real threat to them all. “This is not a disease of wolves and mortals. This is our doing, and our failure in controlling.”

“Your failure, Aubrey. For it is was _your_ job to find the source and terminate it. Yet all you have done is kill off the wretches left behind. You will come home at nightfall to give report in full before the coven. If we cannot take comfort in the end of the threat at least we can take pleasure in your punishment.”

Aubrey opened her mouth but it was Stacie that spoke first, her voice dangerously low in a tightly controlled growl. “Lady…you might wanna rethink that choice.” Erasmus’ head swiveled slowly toward Stacie, her aunt’s calculating gaze trailing up from her feet to her head as she took in everything about the wolf. His head tipped back in a laugh too feminine to be his own, and far too cold to be genuine.

“And why would I do that, dog?”

“Because right now, Aubrey’s word is the only thing standing between you and a war with the pack. You’re outnumbered, and easily surrounded out in the middle of nowhere.”

It gave her aunt pause and the older vampire focused all her attention on Aubrey. “Is it true?”

Aubrey dipped her head once in a nod. “They wish to meet, My Lady. Make it so and we can resolve this together, deny them…”

“And we’ll tear every vampire apart until we’re sure there’s no threat left.”

Erasmus’ eyes closed and he stumbled backward a step as the force of her aunt’s power left his body. He shook his dark head to try free himself of the lingering feeling of her control over him. Aubrey took a step forward cautiously but stopped when he gasped out a ragged breath and held his hand up to ward her off. It took him a minute or two of breathing before he righted himself and stood tall again.

“The coven accepts parley. Name your time and place.”

Aubrey looked at Stacie for final confirmation and the brunette gave her a slight nod. “Very well. The next full moon, at the cabin.”

“The Lady would wish to meet alone and in private with the Alpha.” His voice was slow and thick, her aunt still using him even though she wasn’t directly speaking to them anymore.

“Yeah that’s not happening. This ends one way or another on the full moon, that means in front of the coven and pack.”

He gave a slow nod of agreement at Stacie’s terms then pinned Aubrey with a hard look that was all Amélie. “You are to come home until the full moon.”

“I am home.”

Erasmus smiled but it twisted at the last second when her aunt’s anger flooded through him. “You will come home, Aubrey. She demands it.”

“Nah, we’re keepin’ her. Consider it incentive to come to our appointment.”

He flicked his eyes toward Stacie, the smile pulling at his lips once more. But it was his smile, not her aunt’s and it held a hint of pride at the bold tone her mate had taken. He nodded and slid his hands into the pockets of his slacks, once more just a man and not a vessel.

“So it shall be. Until the full moon, Aubrey.”

“Until then. Be well, Erasmus.”

He glanced at the closed door and Stacie tugged at the chain to bring it back up. Erasmus stepped out into the light and gave them one final look before strolling away down the street. She watched him until she started to feel the heat of the sun across her face then stepped back into the garage.

“So…about how you’re supposed to be killing me…”

Uh oh. Aubrey blanked her face and shrugged lightly the picture of innocence. “I thought she was kidding.”

Stacie didn’t buy it for one second and as the heavy door fell into place once more silence swallowed them up. There was only a beat of time before Stacie lunged for her taking them both to the ground in a flying tackle. Aubrey laughed even as her hands were drawn up over her head and her body pinned by Stacie’s weight.

“What am I gonna do with you, vampire?”

“That depends.”

“On?”

“On how much time we have before someone walks in the office door…”


	15. Chapter 15 - Aubrey

15.

“It’s time Bree.”

Aubrey nodded and peeked her head out of the garage, blinking at the still bright sun before pulling herself back inside. The pack would be there any moment and she was sure they had picked this time specifically to put her at a disadvantage. Stacie rolled her shoulders and rotated her head trying to work out of the tension of the coming full moon. She was doing her best to try and stay calm but Aubrey could feel her eagerness to run and howl singing through their connection.

She turned and pulled her mate close for a soft kiss. This was the night that would make them whole in the eyes of the pack but they were already one in her heart. Nothing was going to stop her from getting to Stacie, not even Redd. The taller woman smiled into the kiss; her normally warm hands already fever hot with the rush of wild wolf power rising to the surface. Aubrey watched as Stacie’s eyes bled to a rich golden glow, the muscles in her face twitching as she controlled her shift to keep it at bay.

“Are you ready?”

“Was just gonna ask you the same thing. You have a lot of competition tonight, Angus said even the outliers are choosing to run tonight.”

The vampire dipped her head in a short nod. She was aware that the pool of contenders had grown since news of the parley had been confirmed. They all had a vested interest in seeing how this hunt would end and she was sure most of them were hoping for a wolf to be the victor. Aubrey brought her hand up to trace a cool fingertip along Stacie’s furrowed brow, smoothing it gently.

“I was ready to be yours the moment we first bonded. You just run and keep running. I’ll find you.”

The touched foreheads, Stacie’s breath coming in short shuddered pants as the wolf in her struggled to get out. They didn’t need the formality of vows or even real words for her to know that they were choosing each other. The hunt would be all the final word they needed anyway.

“Knock knock.” They turned at the sound of Angus’ low rumbling voice. He stood just inside the doorway a solid mountain of muscle and swirling restless energy. “Ready to run with the wolves?”

There was a slight tick in his cheek, as he leveled his gaze at her. Aubrey gave a slight nod, squaring her shoulders in response. She was ready for whatever would come to pass once the sun fell and the power of the moon called to them all. The blonde vampire shrugged out of her machete harness and placed it carefully in Stacie’s hands. She wasn’t worried about another vampire taking it, they wouldn’t be able to use it anyway, but she was reluctant to let it out of her sight.

“I’ll put it somewhere safe. I promise.”

Aubrey gave her a mate a soft smile and stood on her toes to give Stacie one last kiss on the chin and turned to follow Angus outside. He stopped her with a hand and held up a full faced helmet with tinted shield. The vampire looked at it for a long moment and raised her brows in question.

“The sun is still up, I thought…”

He shrugged unsure how to say whatever he had been thinking. It was a kindness she hadn’t expected and Aubrey took the helmet gratefully. She opened her mouth to thank him but Angus gave a soft grunt and gestured for her to follow him outside, perhaps uncomfortable with her gratitude. A ghost of a smile flitted across her face as she pulled it on and stepped out into the sun after him. She hoisted herself into the passenger seat of the large truck and shut the door quickly to avoid more exposure than necessary.

“Buckle up.” Aubrey turned her helmeted head and blinked at him through the dark tinted mask. Angus blinked then nodded as it dawned on him that buckling the seat belt was completely unnecessary. “Right. You’re uh already…well. Okay then.”

She turned back to face the front sensing her attention was making him feel awkward. Aubrey didn’t want to count him as an ally because alliances were made and broken easily in life, but that he showed concern for her said much. The vampire wasn’t likely to forget any time soon and appreciated it none the less. There was only one road out of town and he followed it, the truck tires cutting furrows in the thin crust of already muddy snow.

It didn’t take long to reach the gathering of pack wolves, surrounded by parked cars and trucks. Angus pulled up alongside the others and parked. He took a calming breath and gripped the steering wheel in his big hands. Aubrey waited it out sensing that he had something he wanted to say but not wanting to push. And if she were being honest with herself, she wasn’t quite eager to step back out into the swiftly lowering sun just yet. Protected or not the demon in her was still afraid of the relentless power of the sun.

“He’s gonna try something, man like Redd doesn’t much like losing. Not especially losing his chance to be with Stacie. Whatever happens, whatever you hear or see, you keep running. Understand?” If he could see her face he would have noticed the surprised widening of her eyes. Angus shook his head slightly in disappointment as he continued. “Not everyone here is on his side, but you can’t count on anything out there aside from your own ability. I’ll do my best to watch your back, getting to her is on you.”

“Why are you helping me?”

Angus turned his head to stare at her, his pale blue eyes clouding with a soft golden hue as his beast rose slowly. A soft knock on the window drew her attention away from him and Cynthia Rose cautiously opened the door for her. Aubrey slid out of the truck and removed the helmet just as the sun dipped past the horizon. The power of her demon flared to life within her, filling her with cold resolve.

Some of the wolves had already started to undress knowing that the full moon would rise quickly. Redd stood apart, chest bare and puffed out in prideful arrogance. She would have ignored him if he hadn’t swaggered up to the truck with the wolves that followed him trailing in his wake. Cynthia Rose stepped between them; her full lips curled back in a snarl that held a promise of violence. He stopped with a smirk on his face, amused at her response to his proximity.

“Guess you’ve chosen a side. Not smart for you when I take my place at Stacie’s side. And you Angus?”

The burly man yanked his shirt over his head and tossed it into the truck but he kept his gaze trained on Redd and the rest of his supporters. Wolves were starting to crowd around them and Aubrey realized with a start that many of them were drifting toward her. For a moment she wondered if she would have to fight them all before the hunt even started but there no one appeared ready to attack.

“Stace is my Alpha, the only side I’m choosing is hers.”

Redmond looked as though he had expected it but it still didn’t sit right with him. He gave a slow nod and looked over the wolves assembled, dismissing Aubrey’s presence like she didn’t matter. When he turned back to her his eyes were full of fire and power and she knew without a doubt that he would kill her if he could. The pull of the moon hit them then, the weakest already dropping to their knees as the pain of the shift tore through them. Redd stood there calmly watching her as one by one the pack twisted and changed. It was a standoff between them, him showing her how strong he was to resist what others couldn’t hold back.

“This ends tonight blood whore. Without your little weapon you’re as good as dead.”

“Oh Rover, you silly mutt. I’ve been dead since before you were born…and I _still_ stole your girl.”

Her lips quirked once as the cold of the grave consumed her. Aubrey flung off the long leather duster and let it drop to the side, hissing as her fangs lengthened fully. She didn’t need her blade, she was dangerous enough on her own. He watched her a second longer before the wolf could not be denied and he dropped to the ground with all the others. She carefully pulled off her heavy boots and left them with her jacket. She didn’t have to get naked like they did but she wanted as little to slow her down as possible.

The moon rose high over the tops of the trees and a loud baying howl shook the snow from their limbs. _Stacie_. She knew it was her mate without thought, she could feel her mate’s call through their connection and it pulled at her with desperate need. The wolves tipped their heads back and howled out a response, some of them already darting toward the tree line. Aubrey lunged forward no longer caring about the wolves at her back, or the threat at her side. She had one goal, to get to her mate, and she wasn’t going to waste a second more thinking about anything else.

It was easier than she thought to get ahead of them. The weight of their great furred bodies made them sink into the drifts that she was able to speed across without much effort. Aubrey ducked and weaved but as the trees grew closer and tighter she found herself struggling against claw like branches that snagged at her tank top and yanked at her hair. It slowed her down and she could practically feel the hot breath of the wolves at her heels.

A heavy shadow matched her stride, bounding along over felled trees and small boulders just on the other side of a strand of trees. Aubrey spared a quick glance that was almost her undoing when the wolf unexpected cut directly into her path, the weight of it taking her to the hard ground. Teeth snapped viciously at her face as they rolled, the shaggy beast getting the upper hand and pinning her down. The air shifted suddenly above her and the crushing force on her chest lifted with a pained yelp.

The vampire rolled to her knees and took off in a sprint, her legs pumping furiously as she worked to cover the ground she had lost in her brief tussle. A wolf with fur as dark as midnight leapt from the underbrush with a short yipping bark. She tensed waiting for an attack but the wolf kept pace alongside her, tongue lolling out as they ran. Another joined them, loping with the easy grace of an animal used to the wilderness.

_Cynthia Rose and Evan._

Her mind supplied the information before she even had time to question it. Aubrey ducked a low hanging branch and kept going. More of Redd’s chosen tried to intercept her and slow her down but there always seemed to be an unexpected ally ready to level the playing field. She didn’t waste time or effort by looking around for potential threats, she simply followed the call of her mate. Her body moved on autopilot, leaping to avoid collision, lashing out to knock her opponents back when they got too close for comfort.

She could sense Redd out there, watching as he raced her to Stacie’s side. He was smart keeping himself hidden and letting his wolves try to bring her down and wear her out. An outright fight between them would end the hunt before it had even begun because she would win and he understood that. It made her re-evaluate how she viewed him; he was by no means a stupid man. If he had been a vampire a few centuries more of experience would have made him a much deadlier enemy to underestimate.

Another echoing howl boomed out and the pack turned en masse to the sound, cutting a path through the snow that veered sharply away from the track they were on. Aubrey skipped to a stop, and waited, her head tipped to the side following the sound of the howl. If she were following just the sound, she would have turned with the pack but a tug on the tether of her connection pulled her forward in a different direction. Stacie was on the move, calling her pack had been an intentional misdirect and she could practically feel the defiant amusement her wolf felt at making the hunt all the more difficult.

Aubrey broke from the path she was on and barreled into the deepest part of the forest. The vampire slowed and raised her head sniffing lightly at the air in a gesture that was more Stacie’s than her own. Blood. It wasn’t much, just the faintest aroma. Her lips pulled into a wide smile, her mate was leaving a trail she was best suited to follow. The trees around thinned, moonlight finally filtering down to the ground from above. She slowed again and pushed her awareness out, searching the darkest spots of the woods around her.

Stacie was close but so was Redd. She had lost track of him when the pack diverged and splintered off and it had been stupid to think he was as easily mislead as the rest of the pack. Of course he was there, he had probably been following her the entire time. A rustle from her left was the only warning she had before his body plowed into hers. Aubrey rolled with the impact and brought her feet up to kick him off her. Claws slashed down her arm as he tried to cling to his prey despite being lifted and tossed away back into the thicket of frozen twigs and brush.

The vampire glanced down at her arm with a low growl of her own, the feeling of it foreign yet familiar. Redd answered, his body darting out low to the ground to take her out at the knees the second she righted herself and tried to stand. The ground came up hard and fast and she had to twist quickly to avoid the bone crushing jaws that tried to close on her throat. Stacie howled again, her call so much closer than ever before. It wouldn’t take long for the pack to find their way to her and she was wasting time wrestling in the snow.

Teeth dug into the forearm she only just managed to get up in time. Redd growled triumphantly and shook his head trying to yank the arm right out of the socket. It hurt. Pain like acid raced down her arm and into her shoulder and she was dragged back further into the woods, further away from Stacie. Power flowed through her in a cold wash, Aubrey slammed her free hand into the ground, her clawed hands digging deep past the layer of permafrost to anchor her to the spot.

“I am SO over you.”

Redd snarled and pulled harder but she flexed, curling the arm still caught in his grip to slowly drag him closer. He tried again, jaws loosening briefly so he could get a better angle. It was all she needed and the second the pressure let up she lashed out with her anchoring hand in a blinding punch that knocked him sideways. The wolf rose unsteadily but she was on him before he could process her movement. Rage took over her good sense for a moment and she had to fight the urge to end him then and there. Only the sharp barks and searching yodels of the pack coming up fast prevented her from sinking her fangs into his soft belly to tear at his flesh.

Aubrey gave another hissing snarl and brought her fist back to punch him again and felt bones crack when it landed brutally against his jaw. He wasn’t dead, and he wouldn’t die. At least not this night and not by her hand. She stood and stumbled forward; Stacie’s pull on her more insistent than before. Her feet were sluggish, her balance unsteady but the more Stacie urged her on the stronger she got until she was running once more. The vampire burst out of the tree line into a clearing and dropped to her knees.

She scanned the area quickly, recognizing a half-buried boot poking up from a small drift of snow. Aubrey crawled to it and ran bloodied fingers over the black leather. Heavy paws padded across the ground and she raised her head to meet the golden eyed gaze of her Alpha. It was only right that they end this where it began.

“Hello, Puppy.”


	16. Chapter 16 - Stacie

Stacie watched Aubrey and Angus drive off toward the forest, the grin wide on her face. Her vampire hadn’t expected the sudden kindness and truthfully neither had she. But maybe she should have, maybe she should have trusted her pack to see the truth from very start. She gave a soft grunt and placed Aubrey’s weapon on the hood of the Jeep she still hadn’t finished with. Stacie worked the chain pulley to lower the garage door and sighed in relief when she was cut off from the outside world and all its sounds and scents.

The moon was already calling to her, the power of it making her restless and twitchy. The Alpha stretched her hands over her head and groaned as her muscles pulled and relaxed. Tonight was the night and the lingering worry that something would happen to Aubrey, so disadvantaged against the pack, haunted the very human side of her. Long callused fingers trailed over the machete’s sheath and she couldn’t help but slide it free.

It was a gorgeous piece, and just the weight of it in her hand made her feel closer to Aubrey. It was more than just the magical bond between them, what they had was solid and tangible like the machete she held. Magic had led them to each other but what had kept them together had been something else, something deeper. Stacie took a deep settling breath and slipped the blade back into place before carrying it upstairs to place it on the bed. Their bed.

It was still new, sharing her life, her pack…her whole world. But with Aubrey it didn’t feel new, it felt familiar and right. Like the blonde had always been there in her home and in her heart. Stacie worked to undress quickly, letting the wolf in her rise to the surface. It was usually more of a struggle than this, her human mind fighting to retain control even as the beast took over her body. Today was different, something had changed in her and for the first time there was no struggle between human thought and wolfy reflex.

Before Aubrey she had rejected this hunt for all it represented and all it was. She knew that the wolf would win out and it would be all need driven instinct leading her, which would be fine if she spent her days as a wolf. But she was human too, and the human side of her would have to live with the consequence of whatever mate the wolf had chosen and the suffocating bond of ritual pack law. It would have trapped her in a life she didn’t care to lead but would be unable to change.

A part of her still resented that they had to do it all. She knew Aubrey was right, that this was their choice now, they could make it how they wanted but it still bothered her deep down. Stacie eased her jeans over her hips and down her legs, stepping out of them just as her animal burst forth and pushed her into a full shift with lightning speed. It wasn’t just the call of the moon that had caused the rush of magic that tipped her over the edge, it was the cool edge of Aubrey’s power flowing through their connection, urging her beast forward.

The wolf shook her body, kicking off the last bit of her pants still holding her to her human world. She sneezed and padded to the stairs, taking them in one huge leap. Nails clicked on the yellowed and worn linoleum floor of the office as she moved around to get to the partially open window. She had left it open earlier already knowing that once she shifted to wolf she wouldn’t be able to shift back again until sunup. It was the only time her hard -earned control failed to bring her back from that edge at will.

Stacie pushed the window wider with her snout and squeezed her body through it. The wind picked up as she landed on the hard ground and whistled through the empty places between buildings. She tipped her head up to give the now setting sun a baleful glare before running off toward the Tongass National Forest. The ground raced by under her thundering paws as she sped over it, leaping over obstructions in her way with the excess of energy the shift always gave her.

She was well into the woods before the sun finally sank past the horizon and the moon rose high. The strength of its pull beckoning the animal further and faster. Rage like a torrent spilled into her connection and she tipped her head back to answer for it with a resounding howl. A fine dusting of snow shook free from the trees above her, covering her in a light layer as she considered her options. The pack would come now, they would follow her song until they found her and trapped her with their rules and their challenges.

There was just enough of her left in control to remember that she wanted _someone_ to find her. She wanted and _needed_ Aubrey to reach her before any of the others. Distantly she heard the pack howling back and it was all the impetus necessary for her to turn and run further away from them and deeper into the darkness. She weaved between trees, intentionally letting her heaving sides brush a trunk here and there, loping in an ever-tightening circle that would leave them frustrated and confused before sending up another challenging howl.

They expected her to keep moving and calling for them, expected her to be waiting to be found. But they definitely would not be prepared for the wild goose chase she was leading them on. Stacie huffed in amusement and carefully picked her way free of the clearing she had baited with her scent and tufts of loose fur caught on rough bark and branches. Aubrey wouldn’t be so easily fooled by the false trail but without wolf senses she might not pick up on Stacie’s movements as easily and that would cost them precious time. Time that Redmond would use to his advantage, she was certain of that. A low snarl eased out of her at just the thought of him trying to force a mating on her.

It would be easier if she could seek out the vampire using their connection, meet her halfway and ensure their union but that would be cheating in a way that ruffled her fur. The wolf hesitated in her path unsure where to go from there or how to reach out to her mate without playing on the bond between them. She settled herself with a wide yawn and irritable snort before finally deciding that leaving Aubrey a blood trail was no different than the one she’d left for the pack. Stacie growled and bit at her own paw, savagely ripping into the fatty pad to draw blood. It welled up in a rush, the strong coppery scent overwhelming and familiar.

If it had been a hunt for food her wolves would have picked up on the scent almost immediately to seek out what wounded creature they could, but this was a hunt that would end in a mating. Food would be a distant thought with the lure of sex and power clouding their judgement. Stacie ran into the night, no longer conflicted on where to go or what to do. Blood and sex were too closely aligned for vampires and Aubrey wouldn’t miss the signal. It was in her nature to seek it out with only the faintest of trails and that was what the Alpha was hoping for.

Her body moved without conscious thought, pulling her forward from shadow to shadow until she charged into a clearing. Stacie sniffed at the air with her ears pinned flat to her head, searching the open space for threats. She felt a tingle of recognition when her gaze landed on the scar of turned earth and snow. The wolf crept forward and snuffed at the area; any scents now long gone. Not that it mattered, her mate was close enough to sense and if she could just _control herself_ long enough not to break cover it would all be over soon.

The snap and rustle of movement alerted her that Aubrey wasn’t the only creature searching for her. Her pack was still far out but Redd was not, his scent thickly filling the air the closer he got. She growled low in her throat realizing that he would have kept to Aubrey’s trail, letting her lead him to Stacie. Anger and pain pushed down the thread of her connection and she tipped her head back in another baying howl. The sounds of a struggle made her back into the darker space at the base of a tree just outside the edge of the clearing.

The cold fire of pain lanced through her making the slight throb in her paw seem like a distant dream. It staggered her where she stood and Stacie whined softly trying to see past the dense woods separating her from her vampire. The sounds abruptly cut off with a yelp and a hiss that echoed in her soul. Stacie pranced from paw to paw searching, hoping…waiting. The shuffle of feet brought her ears forward to swivel and twitch, tracking the soft scuffing sound.

The moonlight fell on Aubrey’s blonde hair with ethereal light as she limped into the clear space between them and sagged to her knees. She watched as the vampire crawled forward and gave a soft, tired chuckle at her discovery of where they were. Howls and barks rebounded off the woods around them and Stacie stalked forward, spurred on by the nearness of the pack.

“Hello, Puppy.”

The low burr of her voice was as much of a lure as the nickname Puppy was an annoyance. Stacie growled deeply as she padded forward, lips pulling back to flash her teeth angrily. She struggled against the power of the wolf, struggled against the hunger that kicked up at the scent of Aubrey’s blood. A hunger she had never known before she had bonded to a vampire. The woman met her gaze steadily, silver eyes glowing feverishly bright as she settled into a wary crouch.

“Hm…hungry, are we?” Stacie’s tongue lapped out at her chops and she snapped at the air between them as they faced off. If she had thought that her wolf would just accept a mate she had been mistaken. The moon hit its apex high above them as they lunged forward toward each other, fangs bared for a fight. Stacie struggled to the surface of her wolf conscious, pulling on every bit of power and control she had. And it _hurt_. Oh God did it hurt. But her need for Aubrey was greater than the sway the moon’s power had over her.

But that hurt that only made her lash out as the shifting hulk of her body collided with Aubrey’s taking them both to the snowy ground in a thrashing tumble. Bones and muscles twisted and stretched painfully making her strike with snarling bites to free herself of the strong arms wrapped around her. Dimly she was aware of the spaces between trees filling with the presence of the pack and she growled as much a warning to them as the woman fighting to sink her teeth into a neck no longer protected by a mane of thick fur.

There was a moment when their eyes met and the connection between them throbbed with intensity and it was the last thing Stacie saw before the flash of fangs sunk into her flesh. Her body stiffened and arced up under the vampire pinning her down. Power raced back and forth between them in rolling waves that crested and ebbed more fully than it ever had before. She knew something had changed from one heartbeat to the next when the power they had built spilled over and Aubrey’s head reared back; Stacie’s blood dripping from her chin as she warbled out a ragged howl to the full moon. The pack echoed it in concert but Stacie barely heard them, all she saw, all she knew, was the woman above her and the power that drew them together with desperate need. Aubrey let her head drop, her eyes a startling bright silver with a deep ring of gold surrounding the iris.

The Alpha wrapped her arms around the other woman, still clawed hands pulling her down further to meet in a searing kiss. Wolf song rose up around them, marking and honoring the hunt for what it was. They were one, bonded and mated. In this life and whatever ones would follow.


	17. Chapter 17 - Stacie

17.

Stacie shut the door to the truck and glanced up at the sun, it was setting quickly and the pack would change soon. Aubrey joined her from around the front of the vehicle pulling the helmet from her head and giving the sun a snarling lip curl. She had to clear her throat to keep from chuckling as they clasped hands and laced their fingers in a gesture that was as reflexive and automatic as the act of breathing.

Her family gathered around them, boiling over with excess energy. They hadn’t asked for the whole pack to join them; it could turn out badly and she’d never fault a wolf for thinking of their family first. But they were there, every single one of them, prepared to do battle but finally willing to submit to her and let her lead diplomatically.

“I want you to know I... _we_ appreciate everyone being here. I made you all a promise, someone would answer for what happened to Wade.” A low rumbling growl rose like a tide around them, the wolves of a single mind and focus. “Tonight we bring his murderer to justice, _pack_ justice.”

Voices rose around them in union with shouts of agreement. Stacie closed her eyes and took a breath just as the sun dipped below the horizon. She could feel the pull of the moon as it rose high but it wasn’t strong enough to force her wolf to the surface anymore. The cool current of Aubrey’s power flowing between them steadied and calmed her. The Alpha opened her eyes to find her mate watching her, a slow smile easing on to her face when she realized Stacie wasn’t going to shift.

They had been banking on her newfound control over the moon to work in their favor. But breaking her shift to consummate her mating was not the same thing as holding back the hot prickling tide of power on the night when the blood moon was at its strongest. The pack quickly undressed and dropped to all fours, some of them shifting with much less effort than normal. Stacie didn’t think it was just the moon, there was something different about them in general. She felt connected to them all as if they were finally one mind, one voice, one joined howl.

Even Redd who stayed at the fringes still nursing a jaw that was quickly healing. He hadn’t exactly come crawling forward on his belly but he had quieted and seemed at least for now, willing to accept Aubrey’s place in the pack. Stacie’s gaze drifted over to his lean figure as it twisted and rolled in the shift between man and wolf. She watched him as the rest of the pack changed and resettled themselves around Aubrey and Stacie waiting for their word. The tall brunette gave Aubrey’s hand a gentle squeeze and raised a brow teasingly.

“Ready to bring me home to the fam?”

“Hm. I hope you can keep up, Puppy.”

Stacie gave her a playful growl and Aubrey bolted through the trees in a pale blur, her bare feet hardly making a dimple on the soft dusting of light snow. She chuckled as several of her wolves, many of them outliers, turned and bounded after the vampire. A barrel-chested wolf padded forward and shook his shaggy head. She reached out and ran a hand through Angus’ fur, more as a comfort for herself than him she suspected.

“If anything happens, you keep the pack together. Understand?”

He sneezed at that and groaned but bobbed his head in understanding. Stacie gave a nod of her own and sprinted off after Aubrey and her entourage. She could feel the rest of the pack keeping pace with her, and the wild thrill that came with running under the light of the full moon. She couldn’t tell if Aubrey had slowed down or she had just finally caught up but the miles flew by under their feet as they ran side by side. The trek was effortless and it seemed that the woods swayed gently in a breeze that wasn’t there, a way opening easily through the Tongass to let them through.

They crested a low ridge that brought them in view of a small cabin that looked more like an abandoned hunter’s shack than the home of a coven of vampires. They slowed to a stop at the ending edge of the copse that surrounded the clearing the cabin sat at the center of. It was eerily silent there and she realized that outside of the pack no living creatures claimed the area. Stacie gave Aubrey an uncertain look but the blonde only nodded and stepped forward out of the shelter of trees. She waited a beat and stepped out after her, wolves flowed around them out of the forest in light trot that belied the alert flick of ears parsing out every sound around them.

The door swung open on well-oiled hinges and a tall blonde woman stepped out. Others followed in her wake but they didn’t hold her focus the way the woman had. She was beautiful and Stacie could easily see the family resemblance but there was something terrifying about the weight of power that surrounded her. They met in the middle, Aubrey stopping just out of arm’s reach from the other woman. Stacie moved into place at her mate’s left side giving her room to draw her ever present machete from the sheath on her back if necessary.

The older vampire cast a glance at Stacie and dismissed her without so much as a second glance. Her focus was for Aubrey alone as she studied every line and contour of her niece’s face searching for something. She was flawless but everything about her moments seemed wrong and unnatural. If she had ever shown any semblance of humanity it was long ago and all that was left was alien and incomprehensible to the Alpha.

“The prodigal has returned at last.”

“Yes, and with news of the revenants and their maker.”

It was said just loud enough for the other assembled vampires to hear. A whisper slithered among them as they watched Aubrey curiously. Aubrey’s aunt stiffened her back and narrowed her eyes at Stacie’s mate. There would be no way now to make any of this private and The Lady didn’t like that. It was enough of a confirmation that she was guilty of something and Stacie exchanged a look with Bree.

“Do you?” It was dangerous and low and Stacie wanted to take a step closer to Aubrey when she circled them both, having to weave around furred bodies that had fit themselves between them and The Lady of the coven. It made her stop short and she gave the wolves a look of irritation before transferring it to Aubrey. “And you brought home strays it would seem.”

A low sound of dissent rumbled through the pack and it compounded whatever grave imagined insult Aubrey had had given her. The woman glared down her nose at Stacie’s mate and pulled a lip back in a disgusted curl that was all too familiar.

“You’ve been gone a month to lie with dogs and yet you have forgotten how to heel. Have you forgotten your place, _niece_?”

For a moment, the wolf in her threatened to take over in a roar of anger at the insult but that would only push them into dangerous waters. The Lady was obviously baiting them for a reaction either to immediately discredit them or to tip things past the point of no return. Stacie swallowed down the anger, hands reaching out to pet and soothe the snarling wolves around them. The brunette tipped her head to the side with a lazy smirk, her voice slow drawl.

“Her place is at _my_ side. And the mate of an Alpha kneels to no one.”

Stacie was sure however old this creature was she had seen and heard many things and found none of them surprising. But it was pretty clear she’d done just that. The vampire moved forward to examine her with the same intense focus she had shown Aubrey.

“That is not possible. Humans cannot be Alphas of wolf packs.”

“Who said I’m human?”

Pale green eyes flickered with curiosity before that impenetrable mask fell into place. Stacie raised her chin slightly a challenging smirk on her face.

“It is the blood moon is it not? No wolf has been able to resist that lure, not even Alphas.”

The scoffing disbelief irked her and Stacie let power swell inside of her as the wolf spilled forth. She couldn’t feel them change but she knew the moment her eyes had gone soft glowing amber with a ring of icy silver around them by the quiet gasp of surprise the ancient woman made.

“And yet here I stand…”

It was a little flippant and she knew it but she was giving less and less fucks as every minute slipped by them during this little power play. The older vampire turned abruptly and deliberately swished the last few steps to stand in front of Aubrey. Her voice a hiss of a whisper not meant to carry past the three of them.

“Quite surprising niece. Such power and for how long I wonder? How long have you been lying to us all?”

Aubrey’s back straightened and she rolled a shoulder in an unconcerned shrug. “Not as long as you have…”

Something passed between them like a lightning bolt, charging the air and raising Stacie’s hackles. Power flared and pulsed through her connection and she felt Aubrey’s emotions roil with unexpected defiance. Aubrey was done being pushed around and bullied; she was finally able to stand up on her own against her tyrannical aunt.

The Lady appraised her again, her sharp eye assessing a new and unexpected adversary in Aubrey. Stacie could see the shift in her demeanor as real fear flickered in the depths of her eyes. Her deep red lips twitched with momentary uncertainty before she pulled herself together. Her eyes flared silver with barely contained rage.

“Have a care niece, what secrets you lay bare. You may regret your existence for your choices. Remember who has protected you all these many years.”

Stacie felt the growl rise in her throat at the threat, her shoulders tensed as she struggled to contain her wolf. Aubrey gave a dainty snort and stepped closer to her aunt; each movement filled with tightly coiled energy. If menace were a tangible thing her mate would be wearing it like a cloak.

“I have regretted every moment since my birth under your _protective_ hand. Have a care aunt, what existence you threaten when your own rests so perilously in _my_ grasp.”

It was totally an inappropriate time to be turned on but it was hard not to be. Aubrey brushed past The Lady and stood before the rest of the vampires to address them directly. It was different than watching Aubrey confront the pack, at least with the wolves there was something to read. Tiny movements, gestures, rumbles of agreement or growls of anger. But vampires gave nothing but the barest awareness of what was happening. They watched stone faced and silent as thought they were waiting for something to animate them.

“You tasked me with tracking and hunting the revenants to find the source and eradicate the contamination…”

“Yes, and you still have not done so.”

A low murmur went through the vampires and she gave a slight nod of agreement. Stacie focused her attention on the one who had spoken. He was tall and slightly stoop shouldered, and there was something predatory about the way he looked at Aubrey that make Stacie’s lips pull back in a warning growl as he approached.

“Unfortunate circumstance kept me from pursing the source…”

“You mean you killed the creatures before you could learn anything of value.”

He wasn’t going to let her get a word in if he could help it and Stacie wondered if that was because he didn’t like Aubrey or because he had something to hide. She stepped forward, pushing into the tense space between him and her mate.

“Luckily for you she got to examine the last victim of your little problem.”

He hissed at her but backed up a step, unwilling to stand too close apparently. A spark of something flickered through the vampires and the wolves closed in tighter around their Alpha.

“One of your own took the life of our brother and friend. I hold the coven accountable for his death.”

The Lady turned sharply to look at her and Stacie met her cold gaze. If they didn’t get what they were asking for they would tear the coven apart and scatter the ashes to the wind. She didn’t have to say it out loud, the vampires knew what they were facing in the moment.

“And what do you propose would make this right for you?”

It didn’t hold an ounce of the disdain and venom that her earlier tone had but there was still something calculating just under the surface. It made Stacie wary and she glanced at Aubrey for reassurance. The vampire gave her a slight nod back and she sighed.

“I want his killer. It’s a win win for both of us, yeah? We get justice and you get rid of your problem child.”

Aubrey’s aunt went still in a way that the living can never truly be. Power crackled like electricity around her as she leaned forward slightly, head inclined and a Cheshire like smile crawled across her face. It was a nothing gesture but the articulation of it was all unnatural and creepy as hell.

“But we have no killer to produce. Aubrey was apparently too busy fucking you to do her job.”

Some people snickered snidely at that but Aubrey herself seemed to have zero shame about it and shrugged idly.

“I had time between orgasms to work.”

Several wolves pawed at the ground and bayed their amusement. Stacie chuckled and crossed her arms over her chest as her mate prowled back to her aunt with regal grace.

“When I examined Wade, I found a hint of a scent. Faint certainly but there was no mistaking it for a pure bloodline. The Alpha of the pack has confirmed the presence of…”

“And what makes you think we trust your bitch?”

It came from the circle of listening vampires and it seemed surprised even them. The tall mouthy vampire from before strutted forward boldly despite the snarling barks and growls. Rage filled their connection and she guessed he made it three full steps before Aubrey was on him, fist rocketing forward with blinding speed. The pack raised their voices in a low howl that made the vampires take a few steps back toward the cabin as if it alone would keep the wolves at bay.

The blow landed hard sending him staggering to the ground but he was quick to recover and skitter back behind the safety of numbers. Aubrey moved to give chase but Stacie tugged lightly on their connection drawing the vampire’s gaze. _Focus, love._ This was a distraction from what they came for and she knew that under the anger, Aubrey knew it too. The blonde vampire bared her fangs and hissed at him before making her way back to Stacie’s side.

“You can trust in one thing if you will not trust my word as a Posen. The wolves only want the killer, but they’ll take the whole coven if they have to.”

Bodies shifted nervously and all eyes turned toward The Lady of the coven. She gave a resigned nod having already expected the statement. A weary eyed knowledge settled on her features and she waved a hand dismissively.

“Yes, yes. Utter annihilation of the coven. It was foretold, it’s the only reason I agreed to this meeting in the first place. Just tell us what you want so we can be done with this before the sun rises.”

Aubrey nodded in agreement, and all the vampires glanced up at the sky to track the position of the moon.

“There are but a handful of vampires that could be responsible. Someone older than I, but younger than you, Aunt.” Aubrey glared at the other woman standing just a few feet away. “Someone close enough to your council to know my every move as I make it. Some _bitten_ vampire pretending to be high born, sitting in our midst and threatening our very existence. Can you think of no one at all that fits this description?”

“Why would I know of such a person?”

“Because they came from _our_ line.”


	18. Chapter 18 - Aubrey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took…well. forever. I didn’t think I was actually going to finish. legit ran out of gas on the final chapter. needless to say after the pressure of real life lessened a hair I felt the need to button this up. For the story, for the readers…and for me. If you’re still reading, thank you so much for sticking it out and staying interested despite my annoyingly long hiatus. This one was a wild ride.

She really hadn’t expected her aunt to admit to anything and she wasn’t disappointed. They stared at each other as the coven tittered and whispered amongst themselves. There really was no use in trying to lie about anything at this point, but to The Lady, omission wasn’t really a lie. At least when she was the one doing the omitting. Amélie hadn’t so much as blinked but Aubrey felt that she could leap at them all fangs and fury at any moment and no one would be able to stop her. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d ended someone daring to defy her with an unexpected, violent assault.

Aubrey waited for gossiping whispers to stop before she strode forward far more confidently than she felt. She was much stronger now that she and Stacie had given in fully to their bond, but she still didn’t know the extent of all that brute strength and wasn’t at all sure it was enough to go up again her aunt. In her life she had seen a lot of nightmares come to life but none so scary as The Lady in a full tantrum. Something she hadn’t devolved into yet…but the night was young.

“Do you have no suggestion as to who is to blame, Aunt?”

The Lady said nothing, her shrug a bare dip of a shoulder. So be it, if her aunt wouldn’t offer an explanation then they would do it the hard way. Aubrey glanced over her shoulder at Stacie and felt warmth pulse through their connection. There was no way to explain the depth of what she felt when she looked at her mate but the enormity of it made her heart give a shuddered thump. The wolf gave her a wink, flirting even now in the middle of…all this.

Aubrey gave an amused twitch of her lips despite her rolled eyes. Later, love. It was all the promise she could give just then but Stacie’s easy smile told her it was enough. She pulled her attention back to the coven, pacing slowly back and forth in front of them to keep their focus on her. It was a trick she’d learned from her aunt and she could see in the older woman’s eyes that she recognized it for what it was.

“There is a vampire among us that is a threat to the truce with the pack and our very lives. Let me unmask the coward and bring them to justice as I was ordered to do.”

Nisha, one of the twin seers spoke, her voice soft and lilting with a light accent. “You are asking permission you do not actually seek. You’re going to do what you came here to do regardless are you not?”

She gave a slight nod and glanced at her aunt, still silently watching as cold and unmoving as if she were carved from ice. If she were going to stop Aubrey now would be the time. Seconds ticked by and when nothing further passed between them, she turned to point to each coven member she suspected could be the culprit.

“Luca, Santos, Evelyn, Owens, Cassandra, Balen…and you Massimo.”

He had been edging away from the group near the back and outside her periphery, likely hoping to slip into the shadow unseen to escape but he hadn’t counted on the wolves being so vigilant. No less than six wolves surrounded him, blocking any path he might take that didn’t bring him directly to Aubrey. Cynthia Rose snarled and nipped at his heels spurring him forward. It wasn’t an admission of guilt to want to escape but it might as well have been.

“Hey Rover…”

Redd padded a few steps forward and gazed up at her, eyes steady and clear. He had stayed with her the entire way to the cabin and while she wasn’t sure he was ready to let go of his anger entirely he was definitely ready to run at her side. He gave an annoyed sneeze at the nickname and she smiled, the urge to tug a furred ear playfully too much to resist. She felt the tingle through her connection at the gesture and knew Stacie approved of her bonding with the pack, with Redd in particular.

“If he moves again, kill him.”

Finally, something they could agree on. Redd barked affirmatively, the pack echoing his eagerness, and closed in on Massimo with his ruff bristled and full as he bared his teeth daring the vampire to try sneaking away again. Stacie swaggered toward the waiting vampires and eyed each of them with a measuring weight. Her voice was a soft rumble as she spoke.

“This doesn’t have to be hard unless you wanna make it that way.”

“This is ridiculous! How dare you accuse us, noble born vampires, of being…bitten trash. How dare you bring dogs to our home to threaten us, demanding we bleed for you!” One of the women pushed at Stacie trying to get distance from the Alpha.

“Shut up Evelyn! This is bigger than your ego, all of you. Fools! We have the source of the revenants here and now. We can free ourselves of contagion and move on to the more important business at hand like the treachery at our breast. And you want to quibble over insult? Do you want the wolves to think you are responsible for this blood debt?”

Santos one of the vampires Aubrey had called pulled his sleeve up and slashed at his own forearm, holding it out to Stacie with a haughty defiant air. He flashed his fangs at the others waiting to be judged and waited patiently. Stacie dipped her head in an approving nod and delicately took his arm to take in the scent. The tall brunette stood back, letting his arm go with a shake of her head.

“It’s not him.”

He gave a snort at that and made a mocking bow to the other still resentful vampires. One by one they came forward, Aubrey noting which balked and cast glances toward The Lady silently pleading for intervention. Even if they weren’t guilty, they were too loyal to her Aunt and would be a problem later. Massimo did nothing. He merely stood and waited, staring only at Stacie in a way that made Aubrey want to tear his throat out. Stacie was just reaching for Balen’s proffered arm when the spell of still attentiveness broke and Massimo rushed in a lunge close the spare distance between them.

It was no more than a blink of time and he was prepared to do damage. His fangs lengthened with deadly intent; his head slashing forward ready to sink his teeth into her flesh. Power flared up in Aubrey and she pushed it down the line with force. Stacie’s back straightened and she moved a breath before he would have latched on to her. Massimo stumbled into open air with confusion, his arms closing on nothing leaving him unsure where the wolf had gone. She tapped his shoulder and clasped a hand around his throat when he spun to face her.

“I think someone is a lil eager for a scratch an’ sniff test.” He didn’t need to breathe but that didn’t mean the crushing grip was comfortable. Massimo thrashed wildly, lashing out with clawed hands as he tried to free himself. Stacie only laughed, tightening her grip on his throat before tossing him roughly toward Aubrey. “Care to do the honor, my love?”

Aubrey’s arms went around the man instantly when his back hit her chest as he collided with her. She held him steady as the pack shifted eagerly around them and if she were being honest with herself Aubrey would have to admit that she was enjoying bringing about his end. Massimo twisted in her grip; sharpened nails ready to claw at her face but Redd was ready for him this time. He hadn’t been fast enough to keep up with that lunge toward Stacie but he was making up for it by grabbing onto Massimo’s wrist in his huge jaws, breaking skin, and bone alike. Redd gave a vicious shake of his head as the squirming vampire screamed in pain.

Stacie grabbed the flailing arm when Redd released it and gave the bleeding wound a deep sniff. She pulled back with a sneeze and growled deeply. The ancient vampire struggled in her grip to look at Aubrey’s aunt but Amélie turned her head, willfully ignoring the plea he wouldn’t speak out loud. Vampires skittered back away from them, perhaps fearing for themselves being so close to an infected vampire. Or maybe they didn’t want to be guilty by association. Whatever the reason they gave them room and Aubrey smiled widely. She leaned forward just enough to let her growl roughened whisper carry to his ears.

“You always wanted to know why I would not take your offered hand; it is because the only thing about you that would ever satisfy me…is your final death.”

Stacie’s power flexed and flared and Aubrey heaved Massimo through the air to land in a ring of salivating and snarling wolves. He scrambled back in the snow but could only get so far as they surrounded him. Massimo hissed defiantly and shakily got his feet under him so he would at least have a fighting chance. Rage twisted his sallow features and he snapped his teeth at a wolf that had darted too close for comfort.

“Wait!” The wolves stopped moving but didn’t take their focus from him for one moment. His tone was mocking and bitter. “Amélie!”

Her aunt barely turned her head to look at Massimo, whatever feeling she had for him as her creation was not enough for her to try to save him. The hurt in his face at her rejection quickly turned to hate and he bellowed in rage.

“You may let them bury me Amélie but that will not bury your sins!” Redd and the other wolves surrounding him, closed in closer. They were taunting him, daring him to run or lash out before they scattered his pieces to ash. “Did you never wonder, Aubrey? Who it was that attacked your grandmother in the woods outside her village?”

Aubrey froze at the mention of her grandmother. Anything having to do with her mother’s line was simply not spoken on. The taint of humanity too shameful to discuss even among the members of the coven. Why was he bringing it up now? To what end? She raised her head and levelled a gaze at his crouched form.

“No? Did I ever tell you…you look so much like her…” Power rose like a cresting wave and the wolves eased back only enough for Aubrey to stand among them. Massimo’s voice took on a longing that filled her with disgust. “I could hardly be blamed for it. My maker left me for dead, leaving me wild and alone. And so very…hungry. I admit, I always wondered if you would taste just as sweet.”

Aubrey was not conscious of the rage over taking her control. There was simply deafening silence and the feel of Stacie’s strong arms holding her back as she struggled to reach Massimo. Stacie tipped her head and howled as the pack leapt forward to tear him to shreds. There were too many, too drunk on the moon for him to fight but he tried. Her mate held her lovingly as much as she was containing the furious drive to join the pack.

She couldn’t say what soothing things Stacie whispered in her ear or how long she struggled to get to Massimo. She only knew that the thirst for vengeance still raged inside her, making her chest heave with the strength of its pulse, and giving her the illusion of life.

The coven watched on unmoved as Massimo was torn to shreds until what smoldering ash was left of him rose up on the breeze and the wolves backed up with triumphant yips and barks. More than a few of the vampires were watching her carefully, wondering what she would do with the knowledge that her entire existence was one long and cruel joke.

“I could never figure out why you hated me so much. Now I see. I would always remind you of your mistakes.”

She could feel the growl clawing up from her throat and all she could see was her aunt, haughty and distant. The vampires were whispering again, the sound like an angry hive of bees, buzzing with outrage and betrayal. A soft loose crust of snow crunched under her bare feet as she moved closer to the group.

“Amélie must pay. She put us all jeopardy…”

“And who is going to come to collect? You? You’re as afraid of her as the rest of us Luca.”

“Creating a vampire and leaving it, passing it off as pure, hiding its transgressions…it goes against all our laws!”

The whispers ceased as she got closer and all eyes turned to rest on her. Aubrey was not aware of her hand raising, or the slight burn of the lignum vitae handle against her palm. Vampires scattered before her leaving an open path to her aunt. The blade slipped free easily and she raised it to point at The Lady of the coven.

“You have betrayed us. Your lies and deceptions could have killed us all…”

“Ne sois pas si dramatique.” Amélie raised her shoulder in a shrug, dismissing her actions with a flick of her wrist. “Don’t make this more because you’re bitter that I have been hard on you.”

Stacie roared angrily and would have pushed past Aubrey to get to The Lady if Aubrey hadn’t held out an arm to stop her. The coven surged like a bitter resentful wave seeming to swell in size as they hissed angrily.

“This is not about your family issues, Amélie! The coven speaks this night to decide your fate.”

The pack’s baying was an eerie counterpoint to the serpentine slither and hiss of nearly 70 vampires. In the back of her mind she knew this was about the bigger picture as Santos had said but she couldn’t help but take it quite personally. All this time, the taunting, and the abuse, it had never really been about her. It was true that Massimo was the source of the revenants but her aunt had known about it, hidden it even. She had used Aubrey, forcing her to use her bite and her body to gain wealth and powerful favors, and worse she had locked her own twin brother away to suffer in hunger and madness because she couldn’t bear the thought of his true death. Amélie had targeted her for what she represented, the lies she’d told and the pain she had created.

Santos jerked his head in signal and two vampires moved forward to lay hands on The Lady snapping Aubrey out of her thoughts too late to save them. They never saw The Lady move and could never have stopped her even if they had. Her movements were barely a blur but the bodies bursting to ash before they hit the ground was enough of a statement. The nearest to her backed away quickly from the wide arc of Amélie’s sword, wanting to stay out of reach in case she turned her attention to them.

“And who will enforce that fate? You Santos? Or perhaps you Nisha? Or what about…you.” The Lady turned and let her heavy gaze rest on Aubrey. Her blonde head tipped to the side and she raised a crooked finger to beckon her niece forward. “Have you not waited your whole life to face me? Come then, let’s see if you’ve grown into your fangs yet.”

Aubrey didn’t hesitate and leapt forward to press an attack. Each blow she struck fell heavier and harder with each frenzied deflection her aunt managed to raise in time. A quickly swiped parry left her open and her aunt delivered a devastating uppercut that left Aubrey airborne for the span of a few human heartbeats before she crashed heavily into the ground. She sat up as fast as she could and shook her head clear, trying to clear the ringing bells and get her bearings before her aunt could take advantage of her stupor.

She had just gotten her feet under her when there was a yelp and Stacie’s long body came flying into her, taking them both down in a tangle of limbs. Aubrey could hear her aunt laughing evilly as they struggled to stand together. They shared a look, she and her mate, a silent agreement passing between them that they would end this now, together. Stacie’s eyes glowed brighter, the silver ring bright as the moon and as one they turned and sprinted forward.

Amélie was strong but together they were stronger. They matched her speed and agility, ducking and weaving in concerted movement as they struck and parried. Their awareness of each other wasn’t a conscious recognition, the bond between them surged and swayed pulling them along in a violent dance until they had backed The Lady against a tree. Aubrey held the point of her blade to her aunt’s neck, pressing hard enough to make the pale flesh part as the tip of the machete dug in.

“What is the decree of the coven?”

Soft chittering whispers passed behind her back before Luca spoke. “The Greek will be taken care of. And she must suffer the loss of it.”

It was the way he had said ‘taken care of’ that made her pause. Her aunt’s lips moved and the barest flutter of sound came from her. It was more a prayer than a whisper and Aubrey understood why.

“You know what they will do to him…if not for my life, for his…”

She knew what was being asked of her. Sparing her Erasmus would spare her aunt, he would live and Amélie would avoid the pain of suffering. But would what kind of life would it be surrounded by vicious enemies? Stacie growled and leaned a little into Aubrey’s side showing her support quietly. It was her call and she didn’t know what to do. Erasmus had been the only friend she’d had; his suffering wasn’t something she wanted to be responsible for. Seconds passed into minutes and no one uttered a sound until she raised her voice loud enough to be heard by all.

“If you kill him you risk trying to contain an insane vampire. I think I’ve got a better option.”

Aubrey pulled her machete away from her aunt’s throat and drove it into the ground. She wouldn’t need it for a while. As one she and Stacie reached forward and yanked Amélie by they arms to drag her between them. Aubrey kicked open the door to the cabin and gestured to a vampire to open the hidden door behind the fireplace.

The Lady struggled between them, hissing, and spitting like an enraged cat as they dragged her down to the deepest most secure part of the catacombs. Stacie’s breath fogged the deeper they went, the cold settling around them like a weight. She could feel her mate’s curiosity at the edge of her awareness but this was likely the last time either of them would ever see this place. The coven may forgive her from picking the pack over them but they wouldn’t be exactly welcoming back home with open arms. The door to The Lady’s chamber was closed and likely locked with Erasmus inside it. Aubrey gave it a solid kick and it blasted open tearing the hinges from the frame.

Wolves flowed into the space with disapproving growls and sneezes, sniffing out everything until they discovered Erasmus tucked into a corner, his hands resting lightly on his knees. He gave her a resigned smile and stood. What few vampires had followed them looked about with wary curiosity never having seen the inside of this private chamber.

“Is it my time?”

“Not yet. Get the key.”

There was only one key of value and he knew what she was asking for immediately. Erasmus swallowed thickly and moved to the large desk in the corner of the room. She couldn’t see where he had taken it from, likely some secret nook or hidden panel, but it was all she could focus on when he turned around.

“You miserable excuse for…”

Stacie’s backhand blow stopped whatever hateful things The Lady intended to spew. Aubrey gave her mate an adoring look completely out of place for the moment and took the key from Erasmus. It was heavier than she expected as she closed her fingers around it.

“Open the vault.”

He did as told, rushing forward to pull the release mechanism that rolled a large stone bath along a hidden track to reveal a trap door. Erasmus pulled it open and Stacie shoved Amélie unceremoniously through to land in a heap at the bottom. Aubrey raised her brows and glanced at her beloved.

“There’s a ladder.”

“She doesn’t deserve a ladder.”

Stacie cupped her face gently and brought their foreheads together in a light bump. They didn’t have time for more but that one gesture spoke a world of comfort for her. Aubrey nudged her nose against Stacie’s and pulled back to look over their people.

“Everyone out. The less temptation to rise for the better.”

She couldn’t be sure her father would actually rise. He had been locked in a lead casket an exceptionally long time and certainly would be weak from lack of blood. But… her gaze dropped to her aunt’s crumpled form at the bottom of the opening, she looked weak and pitiful. But even weak vampires could be dangerous. Aubrey dropped into the opening and landed lightly, making room for Stacie to land in a crouch at her side. The hatch slammed shut over their heads and they were left in the dark.

“Should have maybe asked for a flashlight…”

Aubrey chuckled at Stacie’s grumble and reached behind her to feel on the wall for a switch. Lights came on in a soft amber glow, ringing a raised platform where a coffin rested. Stacie leapt up onto the dais and trailed a hand along the ornate lid, rapping with a knuckle in a joking knock.

“Hey pop in law, guess who baby girl brought home for dinner?” Amélie had backed away to the furthest wall she could but it would never be far enough away from her guilt. “Can he hear us?”

“Yes.”

She gave a nod and fit the violet shaped key into the locking mechanism. Each turn releasing another bolt in the long line along the edge of the coffin. Aubrey could feel power, light as a faint echo and she knew he was there, listening and waiting.

“Good. Brought ya a visitor, figured you’d like to have words with the woman that caused all your misery…”

Stacie dropped down to the ground and grabbed The Lady roughly, yanking her to the casket. Whatever fight had been in her had fled above ground. Now faced with her sentence she seemed…. broken. It was pitiful but she just couldn’t bring herself to have pity on her aunt. Aubrey gave a final twist of the lock and fit her fingers under the edge of the lid to lift. She took a breath to prepare herself and gave Stacie a short nod that was quickly returned before raising the lid.

She had never seen her father in person so she didn’t know what to expect, certainly not the youthful face he’d worn when he’d been locked in there. But she hadn’t expected a corpse so dried and decayed that she feared a good wind would blow it to dust.

“Papa…”

His eyes opened suddenly and they all gasped at the shock of it. Pale green orbs blinked slowly at her, recognition filtering through the haze of slumber and insanity. It was all the first meeting she was going to get before he remembered what hunger was. Aubrey stepped back as Stacie pushed Amélie into the casket and slammed the lid shut. There was a silence for a second before a raucous yowl rose from inside the metal box. Aubrey worked quickly to twist the key and seal it as it rocked precariously on its pedestal.

A loud bang startled them both into taking a step back, prepared for the lid to blow completely off with the force of the fight within. Aubrey gave the key in her hand one last long look before tucking it away in her pocket and backing away from her father’s resting place to the ladder. Stacie wrapped warm arms around her and she sank into the comforting hug for a minute before the urge to get out of there overwhelmed them both and they scrambled up.

The heavy hatch gave way as soon as Aubrey pushed and she and Stacie wiggled out of the vault with breathless relief. As soon as they were free, she kicked the trap door shut and pulled the lever to slide the tub back into place. Aubrey sagged against the wall, her back to the room leaving her unable to see whatever had made her mate go still and alert.

“Uh…babe?”

Aubrey turned slowly and blinked at the vampires filling the once inner sanctum of The Lady of the coven. Her hand twitched with the reflex to reach for her machete even though she knew it was still outside. Santos stepped toward them boldly and raised his chin full of arrogance and she expected that this would be the part where they told her to leave and never return if she valued her life.

“My Lady.”

He folded himself gracefully in a subservient pose and lowered his head. It caused a cascading ripple as others followed suit. It took everything in her not to look back at the trap door expecting her aunt to be there demanding obeisance. Amélie was gone, trapped forever in a prison she couldn’t free herself of. And then it dawned on her that he was referring to her.

“Think they’re scared of ya, babe.”

Aubrey blinked at Stacie and took the brunette’s outstretched hand to lead her through the ranks of vampires all on bent knee. It was surreal and a hair too much for her to process at the moment. More than anything she wanted to be back with the pack, at home in garage Stacie had made a den. She wanted to be with her family away from this place where only the dead dwelled.

“They’re scared of us…” A loud booming howl reverberated through the corridors and Aubrey smiled predatorily. “And they should be.”


End file.
